Natural Law and the Nature of Law

Description

This book provides the first systematic, book-length defence of natural law ideas in ethics, politics and jurisprudence since John Finnis's influential Natural Law and Natural Rights. Incorporating insights from recent work in ethical, legal and social theory, it presents a robust and original account of the natural law tradition, challenging common perceptions of natural law as a set of timeless standards imposed on humans from above. Natural law, Jonathan Crowe argues, is objective and normative, but nonetheless historically extended, socially embodied and dependent on contingent facts about human nature. It reflects the ongoing human quest to work out how best to live flourishing lives, given the natures we have and the social environments we inhabit. The nature and purpose of law can only be adequately understood within this wider context of value. Timely, wide-ranging and clearly written, this volume will appeal to those working in law, philosophy and religious studies. Copyright Contents Preface Introduction Part I Normative Foundations 1 Normative Inclinations Dispositions and Inclinations Human Dispositions Normative Inclinations Natural Law and Practical Rationality The Pre-Moral Thesis Theorising Natural Law Natural Law and Human Nature The Dynamic Thesis The Grounding Thesis Nature and Normativity 2 Theorising Human Goods Intelligibility and Context The Basic Good of Life The Basic Good of Health The Basic Good of Pleasure The Basic Good of Friendship The Basic Good of Play The Basic Good of Appreciation The Basic Good of Understanding The Basic Good of Meaning The Basic Good of Reasonableness The Unity of the Good 3 Acting for Reasons Normative Reflection Goods and Persons The Incommensurability Thesis Weighing Reasons Moral Absolutism Intention and Foresight Moral Absolutism Rejected The Role of Reasons 4 The Common Good The Problem of the Baseline Theorising the Common Good Common Good Duties The Role of Determinations The Global Common Good 5 Rights and Freedoms Three Types of Rights Specifying Rights Rights and Reasons Negative and Positive Freedom Framing Political Discourse 6 The Role of the State Consensual Law Emergent Law Natural Law Obedience and Enforcement Gaps in the Law The Rule of Law Natural Law and the State Part II The Nature of Law 7 The Natural Law Thesis Clarifying the Thesis Concepts, Kinds and Terms Rational Defects Invalidity and Defectiveness Norms and Systems Natural Law and Legal Positivism Morality or Rationality? Three Routes to the Thesis Finnis on Invalidity and Defectiveness Murphy on Invalidity and Defectiveness Hybrid Natural Law Theories 8 Law as an Artifact Kind The Problem of Authorship Authorial Intention Social Acceptance The Intention-Acceptance Theory 9 The Function of Law Success Conditions Legal Failures Legal Defects The Artifact Theory of Law 10 Law without Authority The Claims of Law Law and Coordination Coordination without Authority The Duty to Obey the Law 11 Contextual Interpretation Contextual Meaning as Ordinary Meaning The Holism of Contextual Meaning Elements of Context The Dynamism of Contextual Meaning Contextual Meaning and Legal Obligation Contextual Meaning and Original Intent Two Versions of Contextualism The Case for Wide Contextualism The Functions of Laws The Complexity Objection The Vagueness Objection 12 The Value of Integrity Wide Contextualism and Practical Reason The Inherent-Value Theory The Instrumental-Value Theory Truth in Fiction and Law The Value of Integrity Conclusion Works Cited Index