Law as a Moral Idea

Law as a Moral Idea PDF Author: Nigel E. Simmonds
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
This book argues that the institutions of law, and the structures of legal thought, are to be understood by reference to a moral ideal. The idea of law is an ideal of freedom, or independence from the power of others. The moral value and justificatory force of law are not contingent uponcircumstance, but intrinsic to its character as law. Doctrinal legal arguments are shaped by rival conceptions of the conditions for realisation of the idea of law.In making these claims, the author rejects the viewpoint of much contemporary legal theory, and seeks to move jurisprudence closer to an older tradition of philosophical reflection upon law, exemplified by Hobbes and Kant. Modern analytical jurisprudence has tended to view these older philosophiesas confused precisely in so far as they equate an understanding of law's nature with a revelation of its moral basis. According to most contemporary legal theorists, the understanding and analysis of existing institutions is quite distinct from any enterprise of moral reflection. But therelationship between ideals and practices is much more intimate than this approach would suggest. Some institutions can be properly understood only when they are viewed as imperfect attempts to realise moral or political ideals; and some ideals can be conceived only by reference to their expressionin institutions.

Law as a Moral Idea

Law as a Moral Idea PDF Author: Nigel E. Simmonds
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book argues that the institutions of law, and the structures of legal thought, are to be understood by reference to a moral ideal. The idea of law is an ideal of freedom, or independence from the power of others. The moral value and justificatory force of law are not contingent uponcircumstance, but intrinsic to its character as law. Doctrinal legal arguments are shaped by rival conceptions of the conditions for realisation of the idea of law.In making these claims, the author rejects the viewpoint of much contemporary legal theory, and seeks to move jurisprudence closer to an older tradition of philosophical reflection upon law, exemplified by Hobbes and Kant. Modern analytical jurisprudence has tended to view these older philosophiesas confused precisely in so far as they equate an understanding of law's nature with a revelation of its moral basis. According to most contemporary legal theorists, the understanding and analysis of existing institutions is quite distinct from any enterprise of moral reflection. But therelationship between ideals and practices is much more intimate than this approach would suggest. Some institutions can be properly understood only when they are viewed as imperfect attempts to realise moral or political ideals; and some ideals can be conceived only by reference to their expressionin institutions.

Law as a Moral Idea

Law as a Moral Idea PDF Author: Nigel E. Simmonds
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780199552191
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Nigel Simmonds provides an original critique of legal positivism, arguing that the institutions of law, and the structures of legal thought, can only be understood by reference to a moral ideal - an ideal of freedom, or independence from the power of others.

The Problematics of Moral and Legal Theory

The Problematics of Moral and Legal Theory PDF Author: Richard A. Posner
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674042230
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Ambitious legal thinkers have become mesmerized by moral philosophy, believing that great figures in the philosophical tradition hold the keys to understanding and improving law and justice and even to resolving the most contentious issues of constitutional law. They are wrong, contends Richard Posner in this book. Posner characterizes the current preoccupation with moral and constitutional theory as the latest form of legal mystification--an evasion of the real need of American law, which is for a greater understanding of the social, economic, and political facts out of which great legal controversies arise. In pursuit of that understanding, Posner advocates a rebuilding of the law on the pragmatic basis of open-minded and systematic empirical inquiry and the rejection of cant and nostalgia--the true professionalism foreseen by Oliver Wendell Holmes a century ago. A bracing book that pulls no punches and leaves no pieties unpunctured or sacred cows unkicked, The Problematics of Moral and Legal Theory offers a sweeping tour of the current scene in legal studies--and a hopeful prospect for its future.

Law: A Very Short Introduction

Law: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Raymond Wacks
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 9780199214969
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Law touches every aspect of our daily lives, and yet the main concepts, terms, and processes of the legal system remain obscure to many. This Very Short Introduction provides a clear, jargon-free account of modern legal systems, explaining how the law works both in the Western tradition and around the world.

Natural Law and the Nature of Law

Natural Law and the Nature of Law PDF Author: Jonathan Crowe
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108498302
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
Presents a systematic, contemporary defence of the natural law outlook in ethics, politics and jurisprudence.

The Law of Good People

The Law of Good People PDF Author: Yuval Feldman
Publisher:
ISBN: 1107137101
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
This book argues that overcoming people's inability to recognize their own wrongdoing is the most important but regrettably neglected area of the behavioral approach to law.

The Morality of Law

The Morality of Law PDF Author: Lon Luvois Fuller
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788175341630
Category : Law and ethics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


God and Moral Law

God and Moral Law PDF Author: Mark C. Murphy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199693668
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
Does God's existence make a difference to how we explain morality? Mark C. Murphy critiques the two dominant theistic accounts of morality—natural law theory and divine command theory—and presents a novel third view. He argues that we can value natural facts about humans and their good, while keeping God at the centre of our moral explanations. The characteristic methodology of theistic ethics is to proceed by asking whether there are features of moral norms that can be adequately explained only if we hold that such norms have some sort of theistic foundation. But this methodology, fruitful as it has been, is one-sided. God and Moral Law proceeds not from the side of the moral norms, so to speak, but from the God side of things: what sort of explanatory relationship should we expect between God and moral norms given the existence of the God of orthodox theism? Mark C. Murphy asks whether the conception of God in orthodox theism as an absolutely perfect being militates in favour of a particular view of the explanation of morality by appeal to theistic facts. He puts this methodology to work and shows that, surprisingly, natural law theory and divine command theory fail to offer the sort of explanation of morality that we would expect given the existence of the God of orthodox theism. Drawing on the discussion of a structurally similar problem—that of the relationship between God and the laws of nature—Murphy articulates his new account of the relationship between God and morality, one in which facts about God and facts about nature cooperate in the explanation of moral law.

Moral Combat

Moral Combat PDF Author: Heidi Hurd
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521642248
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
Puts forward the argument that the law cannot require us to do what morality forbids.

Philosophy of Law

Philosophy of Law PDF Author: Raymond Wacks
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199687005
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
Raymond Wacks reveals the intriguing and challenging nature of legal philosophy, exploring the notion of law and its role in our lives. He refers to key thinkers from Aristotle to Rawls, from Bentham to Derrida and looks at the central questions behind legal theory, and law's relation to justice, morality, and democracy.