Morality is always higher than law. Any sincere system of law, beginning with the Ten Commandments, is the human attempt to express morality in language. Law is itself higher than whim.
 
When law expresses “malus in se” it expresses that an offense against that law is “evil in itself” as determined by human experience. “Malus in se” laws include those against murder, robbery, bearing false witness, adultery, child abuse, and so forth. “Malus in se” is distinguished from “malus prohibitus.”