Matthew Levering
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199535293
- eISBN:
- 9780191715839
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199535293.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
This book serves as an introduction to natural law theory. The Introduction proposes that natural law theory makes most sense in light of an understanding of a loving Creator. The first chapter then ...
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This book serves as an introduction to natural law theory. The Introduction proposes that natural law theory makes most sense in light of an understanding of a loving Creator. The first chapter then argues the Bible sketches both such an understanding of a loving Creator and an account of natural law that offers an expansive portrait of the moral life. The second chapter surveys the development of natural law doctrine from Descartes to Nietzsche, and shows how these thinkers reverse the biblical portrait by placing human beings at the center of the moral universe. Whereas the biblical portrait of natural law is other-directed, ordered to self-giving love, the modern accounts turn inward upon the self, with reductive consequences. The final two chapters employ theological and philosophical investigation to achieve a contemporary doctrine of natural law that accords with the biblical witness to a loving Creator. These two chapters interact creatively with the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. The book revives discussion of natural law among biblical scholars while also challenging philosophers and theologians to re-think their accounts of natural law.Less
This book serves as an introduction to natural law theory. The Introduction proposes that natural law theory makes most sense in light of an understanding of a loving Creator. The first chapter then argues the Bible sketches both such an understanding of a loving Creator and an account of natural law that offers an expansive portrait of the moral life. The second chapter surveys the development of natural law doctrine from Descartes to Nietzsche, and shows how these thinkers reverse the biblical portrait by placing human beings at the center of the moral universe. Whereas the biblical portrait of natural law is other-directed, ordered to self-giving love, the modern accounts turn inward upon the self, with reductive consequences. The final two chapters employ theological and philosophical investigation to achieve a contemporary doctrine of natural law that accords with the biblical witness to a loving Creator. These two chapters interact creatively with the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. The book revives discussion of natural law among biblical scholars while also challenging philosophers and theologians to re-think their accounts of natural law.
Reinhard Zimmermann
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198299134
- eISBN:
- 9780191708046
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198299134.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Comparative Law
Legal history helps us to understand modern or contemporary law. It explains why the law has become what it is. It lays open the premises on which the modern law is based. It constitutes a rich ...
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Legal history helps us to understand modern or contemporary law. It explains why the law has become what it is. It lays open the premises on which the modern law is based. It constitutes a rich source of experience which is as valuable for the development of modern legal doctrines as for law reform. It may also reveal where a wrong turn has been taken and thus prevent us from repeating an error. Today, however, historical legal scholarship has acquired an added significance in view of the Europeanisation of private law and private law scholarship. It enables us to see the common ground between our modern national legal systems and to understand existing differences. It makes us aware of the fact that the law has not developed in national isolation and can, therefore, not properly be understood under purely national auspices. It constitutes the foundation for scholarship in comparative law and paves the way towards re-establishing a European legal culture. The focus of these Clarendon lectures is on the ‘vital connection that ties the present to the past’ (Savigny) and on the link between legal history, modern legal doctrine, and comparative law. They aim to recreate an awareness of a fundamental intellectual unity based on a common tradition. Such awareness is of central importance to sustain the process of a Europeanisation of private law which we experience today. The three lectures consist of: ‘The End of an Era: Transformation of Scholarship in Roman Law’, ‘The Transition from Civil Law to Civil Code: Dawn of a New Era?’, and ‘A Change in Perspective: European Private Law and its Historical Foundations’.Less
Legal history helps us to understand modern or contemporary law. It explains why the law has become what it is. It lays open the premises on which the modern law is based. It constitutes a rich source of experience which is as valuable for the development of modern legal doctrines as for law reform. It may also reveal where a wrong turn has been taken and thus prevent us from repeating an error. Today, however, historical legal scholarship has acquired an added significance in view of the Europeanisation of private law and private law scholarship. It enables us to see the common ground between our modern national legal systems and to understand existing differences. It makes us aware of the fact that the law has not developed in national isolation and can, therefore, not properly be understood under purely national auspices. It constitutes the foundation for scholarship in comparative law and paves the way towards re-establishing a European legal culture. The focus of these Clarendon lectures is on the ‘vital connection that ties the present to the past’ (Savigny) and on the link between legal history, modern legal doctrine, and comparative law. They aim to recreate an awareness of a fundamental intellectual unity based on a common tradition. Such awareness is of central importance to sustain the process of a Europeanisation of private law which we experience today. The three lectures consist of: ‘The End of an Era: Transformation of Scholarship in Roman Law’, ‘The Transition from Civil Law to Civil Code: Dawn of a New Era?’, and ‘A Change in Perspective: European Private Law and its Historical Foundations’.
REINHARD ZIMMERMANN
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198299134
- eISBN:
- 9780191708046
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198299134.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Comparative Law
This book contains the Clarendon lectures devoted to legal history: Roman law, contemporary law, and European law. 19th-century legal scholarship was dominated by Savigny's Historical School, which ...
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This book contains the Clarendon lectures devoted to legal history: Roman law, contemporary law, and European law. 19th-century legal scholarship was dominated by Savigny's Historical School, which flourished in Germany. The implementation of the German Civil Code, 100 years ago, may be regarded as its supreme triumph or its ultimate failure. Indisputably, the Code has changed our legal perception. It has led to an emancipation of Roman law from contemporary legal doctrine, a process that is sketched in the first lecture. The second lecture discusses whether this has also resulted in an emancipation of contemporary doctrine from Roman law, or whether there has been a qualitative change in our substantive private law as a result of codification. Lawyers in 19th-century Germany were constantly aware, in spite of the bewildering legal diversity with which they were faced, of a fundamental intellectual unity created by a common tradition. The recreation of such an awareness is of central importance to sustain the Europeanisation of private law. The third lecture attempts to demonstrate how this may be achieved.Less
This book contains the Clarendon lectures devoted to legal history: Roman law, contemporary law, and European law. 19th-century legal scholarship was dominated by Savigny's Historical School, which flourished in Germany. The implementation of the German Civil Code, 100 years ago, may be regarded as its supreme triumph or its ultimate failure. Indisputably, the Code has changed our legal perception. It has led to an emancipation of Roman law from contemporary legal doctrine, a process that is sketched in the first lecture. The second lecture discusses whether this has also resulted in an emancipation of contemporary doctrine from Roman law, or whether there has been a qualitative change in our substantive private law as a result of codification. Lawyers in 19th-century Germany were constantly aware, in spite of the bewildering legal diversity with which they were faced, of a fundamental intellectual unity created by a common tradition. The recreation of such an awareness is of central importance to sustain the Europeanisation of private law. The third lecture attempts to demonstrate how this may be achieved.
Alan Boyle and David Freestone (eds)
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198298076
- eISBN:
- 9780191685378
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198298076.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Environmental and Energy Law
This book is a collection of chapters that cover some of the most important issues in contemporary law relating to sustainable development, the utilization of natural resources, and the protection of ...
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This book is a collection of chapters that cover some of the most important issues in contemporary law relating to sustainable development, the utilization of natural resources, and the protection of the environment. Written by experts on these topics who include judges of the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea; legal advisers from international organizations such as the World Bank, the International Maritime Organization, and the Food and Agriculture Organization; and practitioners of international law, as well as some of the leading scholars writing on international environmental law and related subjects, this book covers many of the major legal developments that have taken place since the United Nations Conference on Environmental Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The chapters bring new perspectives on sustainable development as a legal principle, the role of the International Law Commission in codifying international environmental law, the protection of the marine environment following the entry into force of the 1982 UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, and the revolution in international fisheries law.Less
This book is a collection of chapters that cover some of the most important issues in contemporary law relating to sustainable development, the utilization of natural resources, and the protection of the environment. Written by experts on these topics who include judges of the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea; legal advisers from international organizations such as the World Bank, the International Maritime Organization, and the Food and Agriculture Organization; and practitioners of international law, as well as some of the leading scholars writing on international environmental law and related subjects, this book covers many of the major legal developments that have taken place since the United Nations Conference on Environmental Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The chapters bring new perspectives on sustainable development as a legal principle, the role of the International Law Commission in codifying international environmental law, the protection of the marine environment following the entry into force of the 1982 UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, and the revolution in international fisheries law.
Kevin Heller and Gerry Simpson (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199671144
- eISBN:
- 9780191751516
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199671144.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Public International Law, Legal History
Several instances of war crimes trials are familiar to all scholars, but in order to advance understanding of the development of international criminal law, it is important to provide a full range of ...
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Several instances of war crimes trials are familiar to all scholars, but in order to advance understanding of the development of international criminal law, it is important to provide a full range of evidence from less-familiar trials. This book therefore provides a comprehensive overview, uncovering and exploring some of the lesser-known war crimes trials that have taken place in a variety of contexts: international and domestic, northern and southern, historic and contemporary. It analyses these trials with a view to recognizing institutional innovations, clarifying doctrinal debates, and identifying their general relevance to contemporary international criminal law. At the same time, the book recognizes international criminal law's history of suppression or sublimation: What stories has the discipline refused to tell? What stories have been displaced by the ones it has told? Has international criminal law's framing or telling of these stories excluded other possibilities? And — perhaps most important of all — how can recovering the lost stories and imagining new narrative forms reconfigure the discipline?Less
Several instances of war crimes trials are familiar to all scholars, but in order to advance understanding of the development of international criminal law, it is important to provide a full range of evidence from less-familiar trials. This book therefore provides a comprehensive overview, uncovering and exploring some of the lesser-known war crimes trials that have taken place in a variety of contexts: international and domestic, northern and southern, historic and contemporary. It analyses these trials with a view to recognizing institutional innovations, clarifying doctrinal debates, and identifying their general relevance to contemporary international criminal law. At the same time, the book recognizes international criminal law's history of suppression or sublimation: What stories has the discipline refused to tell? What stories have been displaced by the ones it has told? Has international criminal law's framing or telling of these stories excluded other possibilities? And — perhaps most important of all — how can recovering the lost stories and imagining new narrative forms reconfigure the discipline?
Manuel Atienza and Juan Ruiz Manero
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199661640
- eISBN:
- 9780191745461
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199661640.003.0015
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
This chapter advocates for the inherent (nearly necessary) defeasibility of law, based on the idea (originally elaborated by Dworkin) that contemporary law is made on two axiological levels — ...
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This chapter advocates for the inherent (nearly necessary) defeasibility of law, based on the idea (originally elaborated by Dworkin) that contemporary law is made on two axiological levels — principles and rules — and that defeasibility is but the ‘gap’ between these two levels: more precisely, it is the failure of the rule to give a correct implementation to its underlying principle or principles. This would refute legal positivism for it famously does not admit any reference to moral reasoning in order to identify the content of the law.Less
This chapter advocates for the inherent (nearly necessary) defeasibility of law, based on the idea (originally elaborated by Dworkin) that contemporary law is made on two axiological levels — principles and rules — and that defeasibility is but the ‘gap’ between these two levels: more precisely, it is the failure of the rule to give a correct implementation to its underlying principle or principles. This would refute legal positivism for it famously does not admit any reference to moral reasoning in order to identify the content of the law.
Aryeh Neier
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780691200989
- eISBN:
- 9780691200996
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691200989.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter explores the notion that truly “civilized” people should set boundaries even in war, which was not solely confined to those who founded Western civilization. It mentions the Chinese ...
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This chapter explores the notion that truly “civilized” people should set boundaries even in war, which was not solely confined to those who founded Western civilization. It mentions the Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu, whose writings about the relationship between warfare and politics anticipated much contemporary thought on civility. It also identifies some of the leading figures in the Christian Church in the West that called for restraint in combat. The chapter looks into the most significant development of codes imposing restraints on the conduct of hostilities that took place during the “age of chivalry,” which was the late medieval period that lasted from about the twelfth to the fifteenth century. It also reviews accounts of the development of contemporary international humanitarian law, starting with the battle of Solferino in 1859.Less
This chapter explores the notion that truly “civilized” people should set boundaries even in war, which was not solely confined to those who founded Western civilization. It mentions the Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu, whose writings about the relationship between warfare and politics anticipated much contemporary thought on civility. It also identifies some of the leading figures in the Christian Church in the West that called for restraint in combat. The chapter looks into the most significant development of codes imposing restraints on the conduct of hostilities that took place during the “age of chivalry,” which was the late medieval period that lasted from about the twelfth to the fifteenth century. It also reviews accounts of the development of contemporary international humanitarian law, starting with the battle of Solferino in 1859.
