Do circumstances matter when it's comes to legality and ethics?
Well, of course the answer is "yes". Take the instance of "carrying a hatchet around".
There's Contextual dependence: "I was carrying a hatchet, but I was in the woods on my property to remove dead limbs."
There are "Justifying contexts" such as "I was carrying the hatchet to defend myself from the cougar that escaped from the zoo."
There are factors like ex post facto: It wasn't yet illegal to carry the hatchet when the man was arrested (but it is now).
Then there's the principle of "nulla poene sine lege" (no punishment in the absence of law forbidding the act).
*this answer was generated with A.I. but interpreted and phrased by me: I love irony.
