Law, Virtue and Justice

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.

Auteur

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.

Contenu

1. Of Law, Virtue and Justice - An Introduction
   Amalia Amaya and Ho Hock Lai
   I. Law, Virtue and Legal Reasoning
   
   2. Practical Wisdom in Legal Decision-Making
      Claudio Michelon
   3. The Role of Virtue in Legal Justification
      Amalia Amaya
   4. Education and Paternalism: Plato on Virtue and the Law
      Sandrine Berges
      II. Law, Virtue and Character
   5. Neoclassical Public Virtues: Towards an Aretaic Theory of Law-Making (and Law Teaching)
      Sherman J Clark
   6. Confucian Virtue Jurisprudence
      Linghao Wang and Lawrence B Solum
   7. The Three Stages of Judges' Self-Development
      Mateusz Stêpieñ
      III. Virtue Theory and Criminal Law
   8. Motivating Intentions, Reciprocal Specification of Ends and the Assessment of Responsibility
      Kyron Huigens
   9. Liberal Virtue
      Ekow N Yankah
   10. Virtue, Vice and the Criminal Law - A Response to Huigens and Yankah
       RA Duff
       IV. Legal Fact-Finding: Aretaic Perspectives
   11. Virtues of Truthfulness in Forbearing Wrongs: Client Confidentiality Qualified by Legal Symmetry of Past and Future Harm
       Hendrik Kaptein
   12. Virtuous Deliberation on the Criminal Verdict
       Ho Hock Lai
   13. Must Virtue be Particular?
       Frederick Schauer
       V. Law, Empathy and Justice
   14. Empathy, Law and Justice
       Michael Slote
   15. Empathy in Law (A Response to Slote)
       John Deigh
   16. On Empathy as a Necessary, but Not Sufficient, Foundation for Justice (A Response to Slote)
       Susan J Brison
   17. Reply to Deigh and Brison
       Michael Slote