Philosophy of Law

Collected Essays Volume IV

John Finnis

Collects John Finnis's seminal work on the philosophy of law, developing and extending the account of law offered in Natural Law and Natural Rights
Features seven previously unpublished essays, including an overview of the development and goals of legal philosophy, and analyses of post-modern theories of law
Presents Finnis's close engagements with a wide range of legal theories and theorists, from Aquinas and Blackstone to Dworkin and Raz, explaining his natural law theory in dialogue with the major legal philosophers past and present
Includes Finnis's contributions to central problems of constitutional theory, essential reading for all those working in the field

Philosophy of Law

Collected Essays Volume IV

John Finnis

Description

John Finnis has been a central figure in the fundamental re-shaping of legal philosophy over the past half-century. This volume of his Collected Essays shows the full range and power of his contributions to the philosophy of law. The volume collects nearly thirty papers: on the foundations of law's authority; major theories and theorists of law; legal reasoning; revolutions, rights and law; and the logic of law-making.

The essays collected include Finnis' recent appreciations and root-and-branch critiques of Hart's legal and political theories, his engagements with other central figures and works in the field, including Dworkin's Law's Empire; Raz on authority and coordination; Coleman, Leiter and Gardner on legal positivism and naturalism; Aquinas as founder of legal positivism; Weber on the fact-value distinction and legitimation; Unger on indeterminacy in law; Posner on intention and economics; Kelsen and courts on revolutions; game-theory and rational-choice theory; with misinterpreters of Hohfeld on rights logic; John Paul II on voting for unjust laws; analogy's role in legal reasoning; the distribution of constitutional authority in the Empire and its dissolution; the judicial opportunism of separation of powers doctrine in the Australian constitution; the architecture of Blackstone's Commentaries; restitution in civil wrongs; and many other aspects of law and legal theory. Several papers bring to bear his extensive work as a constitutional adviser and lawyer on persistent problems of constitutional theory.

Previously unpublished papers include two on critical or post-modern legal theory, and an introduction reflecting on legal philosophy's development and future.

Philosophy of Law

Collected Essays Volume IV

John Finnis

Introduction Foundations of law's authority
1:Describing Law Normatively
2:Law's Authority and Social Theory's Predicament
3:Law as Coordination
4:"Authority" and Positivism
5:Legal Positivism's Incoherence
Legal reasoning
6:Allocating Risks and Suffering: Some Hidden Traps
7:Practical Reasoning in Law: Some Clarifications
8:Rights: Their Logic Restated
9:Analogical Reasoning in Law
10:Separating Powers: Some Judicial Power-play
11:The Fairy Tale's Moral
Grand theories and theorists of law
12:A Short History of Legal Philosophy
13:Aquinas on Law Updated
14:Natural Law Theory: A Sketch
15:Natural Law Legal Theory: The Classical Tradition
16:The Truth in Legal Positivism
17:Blackstone's Theoretical Intentions
18:Weber on Legal-Rational Authority
19:On Hart's Ways: Law as Reason and as Fact
20:Hart as a Political Philosopher
21:Reason and Authority in Law's Empire
22:Critical Legal Studies
23:Legal Liberalism or Liber et Legalis?
24:Individuals, Communities and Postmodernism: Some Notes
Revolutions, rights and law
25:After Revolution: Courts and Theories
26:Revolutions and Continuity of Law
27:Governing Responsibilities under a Foreign Constitution?
28:Dependencies, Governance and Common Goods
The logic of law making
29:Just Votes for Unjust Laws

Philosophy of Law

Collected Essays Volume IV

John Finnis

Author Information

John Finnis, Professor of Law and Legal Philosophy at Oxford University and Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame

John Finnis is Professor of Law and Legal Philosophy at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of University College. He is the Biolchini Family Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame.