Law Commons^™

Abortion—A Question Of Human Rights, Geoffrey J. Bennett, Christina M. Lyon

Journal Articles

Unlike the American Supreme Court which has been prepared to acknowledge, confront, and attempt to resolve the many problems associated with abortion, the European Commission of Human Rights in two cases that have only recently been reported has disappointingly side-stepped many of the difficult issues involved, and raised more questions than it answers. Furthermore, the reasoning in these decisions, which are concerned with the interpretation of several of the Articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, is at times vague and curiously ill-argued. The two decisions are first a German case, Bruggeman and Scheuten v Federal Republic of Germany …

Revisiting Mary Ann Glendon: Abortion, Divorce, Dependency, And Rights Talk In Western Law, Margaret F. Brinig, Linda C. Mcclain

Journal Articles

This essay revisits Mary Ann Glendon’s comparative law study, Abortion and Divorce in Western Law and her subsequent book, Rights Talk: The Impoverishment of Political Discourse. Glendon’s comparative study actually included a third topic: “forms of dependency which are connected with pregnancy, marriage, and child raising.” The topic of dependency has obvious relevance to consideration of intergenerational obligations and the interplay between family responsibility and societal responsibility for addressing dependency needs. A central claim Glendon made in both books is that the U.S. legal tradition is “libertarian,” views individuals as “lone rights bearers,” and exalts the “right to be …

Abortion—The Female, The Foetus And The Father, Geoffrey J. Bennett, Christina M. Lyon

Journal Articles

The recent case of Paton v. Trustees of B.P.A.S. raised an issue never previously canvassed before an English court, namely: does a husband have any rights in English law to prevent his wife having a lawful abortion within the terms of the Abortion Act 1967? Apart from its interest as a case of first impression in an area of the law which has never been devoid of controversy, the case raised directly or by implication fundamental questions about the control of family life and the rights and duties of those in any way connected with it. Should the final decision …

Abortion—Whose Decision?, Geoffrey J. Bennett, Christina M. Lyon

Journal Articles

Major Points

• The decision in Paton v. Trustees of B.P.A.S.
• Does a husband's "veto power" exist in English Law?
• The rights of the Foetus in English Law
• The rights of the "illegitimate father"
• The American position
• Some reflections

Abortion And Legal Rationality, John M. Finnis

Journal Articles

This article concerns the legitimacy of various legal schemes for dealing with abortion. Legitimacy in one sense is secured simply by complying with the formal criteria for valid law-making: enactment within power and in due form. But jurists have learned (or re-learned) that more can be said about legitimacy, without betraying the purity of their discipline by moralizing and advocacy. From this development in jurisprudential thought emerges the range of questions and criteria deployed in the present study.