Law and morality and their relations involve classical but dynamic themes which have been always seriously debated and disputed in philosophy of law . Although a large number of these debates seem to be contradictory, the contradiction between them nonetheless has its origin in conceptual confusion . Thus this study aims to draw a functional distinction between law and morality without being concerned with theoretical controversies . This has at least two advantages: first, theoretical discussions would come under conceptual strict scrutiny, and second, one can avoid the fallacy of the level of analysis . The legal and the moral are distinguishable in this article by means of conceptual analysis which makes use of four opposite pairs: value versus obligation, institution versus person, persuasion and compulsion, and finally autonomy versus heteronomy .
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