The other definition I find helpful is an idea created by Lord Moulton, a nineteenth-century British parliamentarian, who spoke of ethics as "obedience to the unenforceable." That's an interesting concept, because it separates ethics from law. Law is obedience to the enforceable; ethics has to do with matters upon which the law is silent, but upon which there is a broad social consensus.
Mark Steyn: The great English jurist Lord Moulton considered the most important space in society to be the "middle land" between law and absolute freedom, in which the individual has to be "trusted to obey self-imposed law." That is, a gentleman should not lie for political advantage about the paternity of his child. When he does so, it is a poor reflection on him and on those who colluded with him — the Democratic party and the media. What it is not is a crime. As bad as Edwards's behavior is, the Justice Department's is worse. The urge to ensnare in legalisms every aspect of human existence — including John Edwards's rutting — will consume American liberty.
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