The Cambridge Companion to Natural Law Jurisprudence

by George Duke, Robert P. George

Overview

This collection provides an intellectually rigorous and accessible overview of key topics in contemporary natural law jurisprudence, an influential yet frequently misunderstood branch of legal philosophy. It fills a gap in the existing literature by bringing together leading international experts on natural law theory to provide perspectives on some of the most pressing issues pertaining to the nature and moral foundations of law. Themes covered include the history of the natural law tradition, the natural law account of practical reason, normativity and ethics, natural law approaches to legal obligation and authority and constitutional law. Creating a dialogue between leading figures in natural law thought, the Companion is an ideal introduction to the main commitments of natural law jurisprudence, whilst also offering a concise summary of developments in current scholarship for more advanced readers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107120518
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/16/2017
Series:	Cambridge Companions to Law
Pages:	468
Product dimensions:	6.22(w) x 9.29(h) x 1.14(d)

About the Author

George Duke is Senior Lecturer at Deakin University, Victoria. His research interests include the political and legal philosophy of Aristotle and natural law jurisprudence. He has published on these themes in journals such as Legal Theory, The American Journal of Jurisprudence, Law and Philosophy, the British Journal for the History of Philosophy, The Review of Metaphysics and The Review of Politics.

Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, New Jersey. He is also the Herbert W. Vaughan senior fellow of the Witherspoon Institute, New Jersey and frequently a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. He has served on the US Commission on Civil Rights, the US President's Council on Bioethics, and as Chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, and has been honoured with the US Presidential Citizens Medal and the Honorific Medal for Human Rights of the Republic of Poland.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction George Duke and Robert P. George; Part I. Foundations: 2. Aquinas and natural law jurisprudence John Finnis; 3. Natural law, God and human dignity Robert P. George; 4. Early modern natural law theories Knud Haakonssen; 5. Metaphysical foundations of natural law theories Jonathan Crowe; Part II. Practical Reason, Normativity and Ethics: 6. Natural law, basic goods, and practical reason Christopher Tollefsen; 7. Practical reason in the context of law Veronica Rodriguez-Blanco; 8. Hume, virtue and natural law Thomas Pink; 9. Natural law reasoning in applied ethics Jacqueline Laing; Part III. Law and Politics: 10. Law as an idea we live by N. E. Simmonds; 11. The moral impact theory, the dependence view, and natural law Mark Greenberg; 12. The ideal dimension of law Robert Alexy; 13. Two unhappy dilemmas for natural law jurisprudence Mark C. Murphy; 14. The common good George Duke; 15. Natural law theory and constitutionalism Gerard V. Bradley; 16. Opening the doors of inquiry: Lon Fuller and the natural law tradition Kristen Rundle.