Self-study
Jurist: A nation's laws must be viewed as expressions of a moral code that transcends those laws and serves as a measure of their adequacy. ██████████ █ ███████ ███ ████ ██ █████ █████ ███ ██████████ ███ █████ ███ ██ ████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ███ █████ ███████████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ ████ █████ ████ ███ ███████████
Summary
A nation’s laws must be based on a moral code.
The moral code provides the basis for evaluating laws (E.g., if a law abides by the moral code, it is adequate; if it doesn’t, it’s inadequate.)
Any moral rule that mandates compliance with the law must allow for exceptions. In other words, there are times when moral rules require that the law should not be followed.
Very Strongly Supported Conclusions
There must be occasions when strict compliance with a nation’s laws would lead to violating the nation’s moral code.
16.
Which one of the following ███ ██ ████████ ████████ ████ ███ ████████ ███████████
a
Those who formulate ████████ ███ ███ █████████ █████████ ████ ████████ ████ ████ ██ ███
Unsupported. The stimulus tells us that a nation’s laws can be understood as expressions of a moral code, which indicates that lawmakers are probably consciously or unconsciously deeply concerned with morality when they write said laws.
b
Sometimes criteria other ████ ███ ████████ ███████ ████ █ █████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ████████ ███ ███ ██ ████ ████ ████████
Anti-supported. The stimulus says that, without a moral code, there would be no sound basis for choosing one set of laws over another. In other words, the moral code is the only thing that allows a society to effectively compare the adequacy of different laws.
c
Unless it is ███████ █████████ ████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ██████ █████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ████ ████ ███ ██████████████████
Unsupported. (C) says: “if it it’s legally permitted to violate some moral rules, then behaving morally is the same as complying with the law.” The stimulus doesn’t discuss legal permissibility of violating moral rules, so we can’t infer anything from that sufficient condition.
d
There is no ███████ ████ █ ████████ ████████ ████ █ █████ ██████████ ██ █████
Anti-supported. Statutes can be viewed as expressions of a moral code, so the nation’s citizens presumably have a moral obligation to obey at least some statutes!
e
A nation's laws ███ █████████ ████ ████ ████████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ████ ████████
Very strongly supported. The author’s conclusion is that moral mandates to follow the law need to allow for exceptions. So we can infer that there are times when the moral thing is actually not to follow the law, because the law conflicts with the nation’s moral code!