Philosophy of Law: Volume IV

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 Previously unpublished papers include two on critical or post-modern legal theory, and an introduction reflecting on legal philosophy's development and future.INTRODUCTION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