•  85
    How Is the Rule of Law a Limit on Power?
    Studies in Christian Ethics 29 (1): 34-50. 2016.
    A commitment to the rule of law is a commitment to the governance of a society through the use of general or generalisable rules which are binding on both the subjects and the rulers. By giving due notice of the rules and of any changes to them, those who are subject to the law are protected from violence and enabled to act as agents. This is the essential contribution the rule of law makes to important human goods including freedom. Such an understanding of the rule of law illuminates why the l…Read more
  • Christian theology’s concern for the individual whatever their station expanded the scope of criminal law from protection of the interests of the regime to the security of all in society. The concept of mens rea was first mentioned by Augustine of Hippo and became a key part of the Church’s canon law. From there it was adopted by the secular legal systems of both civil law and common law. Such systems imposed criminal liability on those whose state of mind was adjudged to make them guilty for se…Read more
  •  20
    Augustine posed two questions that go to the heart of the nature of law. Firstly, what is the difference between a kingdom and a band of robbers? Secondly, is an unjust law a law at all? These two questions force us to consider whether law is simply a means of social control, distinguished from a band of robbers only by its size, or whether law is a social institution justified by its orientation towards justice. The End of Law applies Augustine’s questions to modern legal philosophy as well as…Read more
  •  18
    The ostensible arguments advanced by Oliver O’Donovan for a confessionally Christian constitutional order are not persuasive, even in the terms of his own scheme, because they presuppose that such a confession may be required as a representative act. Within his theory lies, however, the assumption that confessing Christ is fundamental to all right decision-making, including the political. This renders the confession of Christ not merely a possibility for legitimate governments but rather essen…Read more
  •  60
    The ostensible arguments advanced by Oliver O’Donovan for a confessionally Christian constitutional order are not persuasive, even in the terms of his own scheme, because they presuppose that such a confession may be required as a representative act. Within his theory lies, however, the assumption that confessing Christ is fundamental to all right decision-making, including the political. This renders the confession of Christ not merely a possibility for legitimate governments but rather essenti…Read more
  •  63
    Robert Alexy defines law as including a claim to moral correctness and demonstrating social efficacy. This paper argues that law's social efficacy is not merely an observable fact but is undergirded by moral commitments by rulers that it is possible for their subjects to follow the rules, that the rulers and others will also follow the rules, that subjects will be protected from violence if they act in accordance with the rules, and that subjects will be entitled to legal redress if others act v…Read more