Natural Law Commons^™

On 'Positivism' And 'Legal Rational Authority', John M. Finnis

Journal Articles

This Article critiques Anthony Kronman’s book Max Weber, which provides an interpretation of Weber’s social theory of law concerning positivism and legal rational authority. In particular, the three premises of Kronman’s thesis regarding social theory are considered and their weaknesses are explained. Through this critique, the Author argues that no good reason has been presented to accept that Weber’s positivist theory is of value.

The Basic Principles Of Natural Law: A Reply To Ralph Mcinerny, John M. Finnis, Germain Grisez

Journal Articles

In the preceding volume of this journal, Prof. Mclnerny criticized certain theoretical positions of Finnis and Grisez as well as their interpretation of St. Thomas. In the present article Finnis and Grisez reply that Mclnerny's criticisms lack cogency, because he has misunderstood their theories, judged their exegesis by his own different interpretation assumed gratuitously to be correct, and mixed philosophical and historical criticism in a way which helps to clarify neither the problems of ethical theory nor those of Thomistic exegesis.

Statutes As Judgments: The Natural Law Theory Of Parliamentary Activity In Medieval England, Morris S. Arnold

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The proposition that late medieval English lawgivers believed themselves to be exercising a declarative function has been so frequently put forward and so widely accepted that it is in danger of being canonized by sheer dint of repetition; and thus one who would deny the essential validity of that notion bears the virtually insuperable burden of proof commonly accorded an accused heretic. Nevertheless, it will be argued here that natural law notions are attributed to the medieval English legislator with only the slightest support from the sources, and after only the most rudimentary and uncritical analyses of the implications of …

Some Professorial Fallacies About Rights, John M. Finnis

Journal Articles

Why do students usually get into a muddle when analysing legal situations in Hohfeldian terms? What is the use of trying to straighten out the muddles, and of teaching Hohfeldian analysis at all? The short answer to the first question is that Hohfeld was clear-headed in applying his scheme, but because of his writing style and his odd views about definition was regrettably gnomic about the meaning and inter-relations of the terms of that scheme. The short answer to the second question is that clear-headed familiarity with Hohfeld's scheme can bring with it an awareness of the questions regularly begged …

Haines: The Revival Of Natural Law Concepts, Edwin W. Tucker

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Revival of Natural Law Concepts by Charles Grove Haines

The Rule Of Law In Historical Perspective, W. Burnett Harvey

Michigan Law Review

Events of the past two decades have made imperative a fundamental re-examination of the basis of government and the legal order. The gross inhumanities of the German and Japanese regimes during the Second World War are fresh in our memories. In many areas of the world today, the force of law is being used for the systematic suppression of claims to freedom and human dignity. The revolutionary ferment of the post-war years has brought into existence new governments with the task of determining their fundamental orientation and the direction of their legal orders.

Legal Sanctions, Jerome Hall

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Book Reviews, Edgar Bodenheimer, Robert S. Lancaster, Stanley D. Rose, Lloyd B. Urdahl

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Great Legal Philosophers: Selected Readings in Jurisprudence Edited by Clarence Morris. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 1959. Pp. 571. $10.00.

reviewer: Edgar Bodenheimer

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Law as Large as Life: A Natural Law for Today and the Supreme Court as its Prophet By Charles P. Curtis. New York: Simon & Schuster. 1959. $3.50.

reviewer: Robert S. Lancaster

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Cases and Materials on Juriprudence By John C. H. Wu. St.Paul: West Publishing Co. 1960. Pp. xliii, 719. $12.00.

reviewer: Stanley D. Rose

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The Law and Legal Theory of the Greeks: An Introduction By J.Walter Jones. New York: Oxford University Press, …

Friedrich: The Philosophy Of Law In Historical Perspective, Edgar Bodenheimer

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Philosophy of Law in Historical Perspective. By C. J. Friedrich.

The Present Position Of Jurisprudence In The United States, Jerome Hall

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Lawson: A Common Lawyer Looks At The Civil Law, F. S. C. Northrop

Michigan Law Review

A Review of A Common Lawyer Looks at the Civil Law. By F. H. Lawson.

Corwin: The "Higher Law" Background Of American Constitutional Law, Charles M. Whelan S.J.

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The "Higher Law" Background of American Constitutional Law. By Edward S. Corwin.

Gough: Fundamental Law In English Constitutional History, Samuel I. Shuman

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Fundamental Law in English Constitutional History. By J. W. Gough.

Recent Books, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This department undertakes to note or review briefly current books on law and matters closely related thereto.

Natural Law In American Constitutional Theory, Fowler Vincent Harper

Michigan Law Review

Natural law has had many meanings and diversified interpretations. Whether in the form of jus naturale, the law of nature, the law of reason, lex naturalis, lex aeterna, natural justice, or due process of law; natural law, in the broadest sense, has evolved as the needs of a particular civilization and the endeavors of its legal scholars have directed. It is significant, however, that as a philosophy of law, natural law continues to thrive, although the particular system which one community constructs may be abandoned by succeeding generations. Periods of growth in the law have been frequently accompanied …

Legal Standards And Ideals, Sir Paul Vinogradoff

Michigan Law Review

Provisions for the settling of conflicts constitute the greater part of any legal system. These conflicts are not entirely governed by self interest and the idea of ethical duty does not disappear from them: it asserts itself in the shape of the balance to be established ·by the court: while every litigant presses for the satisfaction of his own claims society is called upon to adjudicate fairly between the parties: the moral notion of justice appears as the impartial attribution of what everyone in society ought to have by right. We make distinctions between men in accordance with their greater …