Law, Virtue and Justice

Description

This book explores the relevance of virtue theory to law from a variety of perspectives. The concept of virtue is central in both contemporary ethics and epistemology. In contrast, in law, there has not been a comparable trend toward explaining normativity on the model of virtue theory. In the last few years, however, there has been an increasing interest in virtue theory among legal scholars. 'Virtue jurisprudence' has emerged as a serious candidate for a theory of law and adjudication. Advocates of virtue jurisprudence put primary emphasis on aretaic concepts rather than on duties or consequences. Aretaic concepts are, on this view, crucial for explaining law and adjudication. This book is a collection of essays examining the role of virtue in general jurisprudence as well as in specific areas of the law. Part I puts together a number of papers discussing various philosophical aspects of an approach to law and adjudication based on the virtues. Part II discusses the relationship between law, virtue and character development, with some of the essays selected analysing this relationship by combining both eastern perspectives on virtue and character with western approaches. Parts III and IV examine problems of substantive areas of law, more specifically, criminal law and evidence law, from within a virtue-based framework. Last, Part V discusses the relevance of empathy to our understanding of justice and legal morality.

Amalia Amaya is a Researcher in the Institute of Philosophical Research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Ho Hock Lai is a Professor in the Faculty of Law at the National University of Singapore.

[The books is] sure to be a valuable resource for legal scholars and practitioners for years to come. -- Mark D. White * LSE Review of Books * As a collection, this is a highly informative, always interesting and richly diversified body of research, engaged with vital questions especially of criminal law, but also of many other areas in ethics and law, including client confidentiality, legal moralism and paternalism. It also includes an instructive comparison between western and Confucian theories in this area of jurisprudence. Many concrete issues and controversies are discussed and illustrated with real and imaginary cases, such as euthanasia, prostitution and racial and sex discrimination. Overall, whether one is convinced or not, the project of developing the case for virtue jurisprudence is well served by this book. -- Mark Tebbit * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews * ... an impressive array of moral and legal philosophers, including those informed by both the (still dominant) Aristotelian approach to the virtues as well as the (less acknowledged, but possibly growing in influence) Confucian approach. Individual chapters are cross-referenced, and there are a number of helpful commentaries on leading contributions. The editors should be praised for both their vision and their efforts in presenting such a harmonious package of papers. -- Maksymilian Del Mar * Jurisprudence, Volume 5, issue 1 * This was a fascinating book to read, and I can hardly do justice to all of its arguments here. For those who work in philosophy of law as well as virtue ethics, this is a worthwhile collection of complex essays. Overall the book makes a valuable contribution to a virtue-oriented approach to legal theory. -- Jason Cruze * Journal of Moral Philosophy *