Finnis on the Authority of Law and the Common Good

Abstract

This paper seeks to elucidate the role played by the common good in John Finnis's arguments for a generic and presumptive moral obligation to obey the law.1Finnis's appeal to the common good constitutes a direct challenge to liberal and philosophical anarchist denials of a generic and presumptive obligation to obey the law.2It is questionable, however, whether Finnis has presented the strongest possible case for his position. In the first section I outline Finnis's account of the relationship between basic goods, the common good, and the authority of law. Section II demonstrates how Finnis's emphasis upon the instrumental nature of the common good leaves his position vulnerable to Joseph Raz's objections3that not all cases of law make a moral difference and that governmental authority is often unnecessary to resolve coordination problems. I argue that Raz's critique nonetheless fails adequately to address an alternative defense of the existence of a generic and presumptive obligation to obey the law, suggested by some passages in Finnis's work, according to which the common good is integral, rather than merely instrumental, to the good of individuals. In the final section I consider whether Finnis could strengthen his case for a generic and presumptive obligation to obey the law by adopting a more consistently robust—and hence also more contentious—account of the common good.

Bens Humanos Básicos Versus Capacidades Humanas: Dois Modelos De Teoria Normativa Do Direito

“…(g) respeitar por todos os valores básicos em cada ato; (h) buscar o bem comum; (i) seguir a sua própria consciência (Duke, 2013).…”

Estado e moralidade sexual: respondendo aos pleitos jurídicos de pessoas transgêneras

“…Acesso em: 10 jun. 2016 56 Disponível em: <http://igay.ig.com.br/2014-03-11/laerte-gostaria-de-nao-ter-renegado-minha-homossexualidade-por-40-anos.html>. Acesso em: 10 jun.…”

“…Acesso em: 10 jun. 2016. O original em inglês, incluídas as outras doenças, pode ser encontrado no seguinte site da OMS: <http://apps.who.int/classifications/icd10/browse/2016/en>.…”

“…(KOPPELMAN, 1997, p. 2). 25 Tollefsen endossa expressamente a concepção de perfeccionismo defendida por Finnis em seu artigo Pure Perfectionism and the Limits of Paternalism (TOLLEFSEN, 2013), publicado na coletânea Reason, Morality, and Law: the Philosophy of John Finnis (KEOWN;GEORGE, 2013). 26 Trata-se de página mantida e editada por Ryan T. Anderson, um dos novos nomes da teoria de Direito Natural, e que possui vários artigos e obras sobre temas de moralidade sexual, notadamente sobre casamento (em parceria com Robert George).…”

“…Estas informações e outros dados, atualizados até julho de 2016, podem ser encontrados no site da organização Transgender Europe: <http://tgeu.org/resources/countries-informations/>. Acesso em: 27 out 2016…”