THE NORMATIVITY OF LAW AND THE POSSIBILITY OF SOCIAL CHANGE: REVISITING THE MORAL FOUNDATIONS OF JURISPRUDENCE
Can law drive genuine social change if it is divorced from morality? This paper addresses the tension between the normativity of law and its capacity to transform society by revisiting the moral foundations of jurisprudence. It defends the view that, law cannot be reduced to mere command or technical rule, but must be understood as a normative enterprise oriented toward justice, fairness, and human dignity. We argue in this paper that, traditions from natural law to contemporary African communitarianism reveal that the moral legitimacy of law is the condition for its transformative power. This paper examines how positivist separations of law and morality often entrench domination, while integrative approaches inspired by thinkers like Fuller, Dworkin, and African philosophers open the path to liberation. The objective is to show that without moral foundations, law risks becoming an instrument of oppression rather than a vehicle for justice. The findings affirm that embedding moral values in jurisprudence enhances law’s capacity to challenge corruption, protect rights, and nurture communal solidarity. The paper recommends a reorientation of African legal institutions toward normative commitments that prioritize social justice, and it concludes that the normativity of law is not an abstract ideal but a practical necessity for achieving meaningful social change.
Keywords: Normativity of Law, Jurisprudence, Social Change, Moral Foundations, Justice