Differences between laws, values, morals & ethics

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The differences

Laws are bound by the government and punishable by the justice system. A law is made to be followed at all times, although there are times of which morals, values and ethics can cloud a person's judgement or create conflict between the law and it. Morals are what society has enforced onto you and determine what is right or wrong(eg,it is morally wrong in the eyes of society to defend an accused killer but due to the fact you work in legal aid, you have to. Do you defend them or not? What is the moral thing to do?). When a law comes into play that questions your morals, you are often torn between the two. Values are the principles and regard of which an opinion is held. If a law again is against your values (eg, you value honesty but the law of lawyer to client confidentiality forces you to lie in a court of law, making you torn between lying or telling the truth). Ethics is very similar to morals, but ethics are behaviours and decisions made based from moral beliefs. This can become an issue with law if for example, a client tells you they have killed a person, including all of the details but because of the lawyer to client confidentiality law you can't tell anyone. Your ethics are shown in if you do tell someone or if you don't, and the 'ethical' thing to do in the eyes of society would be to tell someone.