[masswerk]

I think, what you are addressing is social convention and social norms, which are enforced by social sanctions only. However, while these are soft norms, laws are hard norms and enforced by the legal system, which is an important difference. Therefor (however we may feel about this) something may be intuitively and morally wrong, but still perfectly legal. Still, this may subject to social action, which may be what you are aiming at. This is, what civil society is about.