The Ends and Limits of Law

TY - CHAP

T1 - The Ends and Limits of Law

AU - Stanton-Ife, John

PY - 2020/6/1

Y1 - 2020/6/1

N2 - Historically the end of law has often been taken to be something like this: to secure the realisation of moral goals or to promote the well-being of persons. The law is (or should be) based on what a well-known opponent of such a view, John Rawls, would describe as a ‘comprehensive moral doctrine’. As Rawls puts it, a comprehensive moral conception ‘includes conceptions of what is of value in human life, and ideals of personal character, as well as ideals of friendship and of familial and associational relationships, and much else that is to inform our conduct and in the limit to our life as a whole’.1 He has in mind many ethical and philosophical doctrines that prescribe how one ought to act and live.

AB - Historically the end of law has often been taken to be something like this: to secure the realisation of moral goals or to promote the well-being of persons. The law is (or should be) based on what a well-known opponent of such a view, John Rawls, would describe as a ‘comprehensive moral doctrine’. As Rawls puts it, a comprehensive moral conception ‘includes conceptions of what is of value in human life, and ideals of personal character, as well as ideals of friendship and of familial and associational relationships, and much else that is to inform our conduct and in the limit to our life as a whole’.1 He has in mind many ethical and philosophical doctrines that prescribe how one ought to act and live.

U2 - 10.1017/9781316104439.012

DO - 10.1017/9781316104439.012

M3 - Chapter

SN - 9781107087965

SN - 9781107458222

SP - 208

EP - 234

BT - The Cambridge Companion to the Philosophy of Law

PB - Cambridge University Press (CUP)

ER -