The law and morality can be seen to have very strong links with one another. Things that are usually deemed as immoral are often illegal. The Natural Law Theory states that law are morality are the same thing and that every legal question has a moral question that runs along with it. The theory is physically demonstrated by two circles with the centres overlapping to show that they are linked. The overlap displays a correspondence between moral values and law. For example, murder is illegal in all countries and it is also deemed immoral in all societies.

Professor Hart said that there is no societal shared morality. He said that using law to enforce moral standards is unnecessary because society regulates itself and it is unacceptable to restrict the autonomy of the individual. His views were based on the John Stuart Mill (1806 - 1873) who was the founder of the doctrine of liberalsm along with liberal thinking and John Stuart Mill stated tat law lets people make their own choices, as long as they think of the consequences of their actions and do not cause any harm to others.

Contrary to this, Lord Devlin said that morality and law are indefinitely linked and immoral acts, even when practised in private can weaken the fabric of society. He also stated that society should punish an act deemed as offensive against society and ‘norms’ of society. Lord Devlin thought that if the reasonable man thought something was disgusting or immoral then it should therefore be made illegal.

The Wolfenden Committee was set up in 1954 to consider whether the law should intervene in the private lives of individuals, particularly to debate topics such as homosexuality and prostitution, which were both seen as immoral at the time. In the case of R v Brown (1992) where a group of sadomasochist men, were charged with GBH because they inflicted serious pain on one another in the