John Finnis - Wikipedia John Finnis From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search For the explorer and settler of South Australia, see John Finnis (captain). John Finnis AC John Finnis on the television discussion programme After Dark in 1987 Born John Mitchell Finnis (1940-07-28) 28 July 1940 (age 80) Australia Alma mater University of Adelaide University of Oxford (DPhil) Notable work Natural Law and Natural Rights (1980) Era Contemporary philosophy Region Western philosophy School Thomism Natural law theory Thesis The idea of judicial power, with special reference to Australian law (1965) Doctoral advisor H. L. A. Hart Doctoral students Neil Gorsuch[1] Robert P. George Main interests Philosophy of law Political theory Philosophy of religion Notable ideas Criticism of legal positivism John Mitchell Finnis, AC QC (Hon) FBA (born 28 July 1940) is an Australian legal philosopher, jurist and scholar specializing in jurisprudence and the philosophy of law. He is currently the Biolchini Family Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School and Permanent Senior Distinguished Research Fellow at the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture.[2] He was Professor of Law & Legal Philosophy at the University of Oxford from 1989 to 2010, where he is now professor emeritus. He acted as a constitutional adviser to successive Australian Commonwealth governments in constitutional matters and bilateral relations with the United Kingdom.[3] His academic focus is in the areas of jurisprudence, political theory, and constitutional law, while his practice at the English Bar saw him in cases at the High Court and at the Court of Appeal. He is a member of Gray's Inn. He was appointed an honorary Queen's Counsel in 2017.[4] In 2019 he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), Australia's highest civilian award.[5] Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 3 Publications 3.1 Books 3.2 Articles 3.3 Video lectures 4 References Early life and education[edit] Finnis was educated at St. Peter's College, Adelaide and the University of Adelaide, where he was a member of St. Mark's College. He obtained his Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree there, winning a Rhodes scholarship to University College, Oxford, in 1962, where he obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree with a thesis on the concept of judicial power, with reference to Australian federal constitutional law.[6][7] Also in 1962, Finnis converted to Roman Catholicism.[8] Finnis was a friend of Aung San Suu Kyi, also an Oxford graduate; and, in 1989, Finnis nominated her for the Nobel Peace Prize. Aung San Suu Kyi won the prize but did not receive it until June 2012, when she recalled how her late husband, Michael Aris, had visited her under house arrest and brought her the news "that a friend, John Finnis" had nominated her for the prize.[9] Career[edit] Finnis is a legal philosopher and author of Natural Law and Natural Rights (1980, 2011), a seminal contribution to the philosophy of law and a restatement of natural law doctrine. For Finnis there are seven basic goods; life, knowledge, play, aesthetic experience, sociability of friendship, practical reasonableness and religion. In his book on Finnis' student Neil Gorsuch while at Oxford University, John Greenya has described Finnis's views by stating: "Some of John Finnis's views are very controversial. For example, in defending his long-held position against same-sex marriage and same-sex coupling, he once compared them to bestiality."[8] Philosopher Stephen Buckle sees Finnis's list of proposed basic goods as plausible, but notes that "Finnis's account becomes more controversial when he goes on to specify the basic requirements of practical reasonableness". He sees Finnis's requirement that practical reason requires "respect for every basic value in every act" as intended both to rule out consequentialism in ethics and also to support the moral viewpoint of the Catholic Church on a range of contentious issues, including contraception and masturbation, which in his view undermines its plausibility.[10] Finnis's work on natural law ethics has been a source of controversy in both neo-Thomist and analytical circles. Craig Paterson sees his work as interesting because it challenges a key assumption of both neo-Thomist and analytical philosophy: the idea that a natural law ethics must be based upon an attempt to derive normative (or "ought") statements from descriptive (or "is") statements.[11] According to Andrew Sullivan, Finnis has articulated "an intelligible and subtle account of homosexuality" based on the new natural law, a less biologically-based version of natural law theory. Finnis argues that the state should deter public approval of homosexual behaviour while refusing to persecute individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation, basing this position not on the claim that homosexual sex is unnatural but on the idea that it cannot involve the union of procreation and emotional commitment that heterosexual sex can, and is therefore an assault on heterosexual union. Sullivan believes that such a conservative position is vulnerable to criticism on its own terms, since the stability of existing families is better served by the acceptance of those homosexuals who are part of them.[12] Other scholars, such as Stephen Macedo and Michael J. Perry, have also criticised Finnis's views.[13] He has supervised several PhD students including Neil Gorsuch,[1] Justice Susan Kenny of the Federal Court of Australia, and Robert P. George.[14] In 2013 George and Keown summarised some of Finnis's media work as "He has, for example, debated embryo research with Mary Warnock on BBC's Newsnight and with Jonathan Glover in the Channel 4 Debate; discussed euthanasia with a leading Dutch euthanasiast on the same channel's After Dark, and written on eugenic abortion in The Sunday Telegraph".[15] In the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours List in Australia, Finnis was appointed a Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia, the country's highest civilian honour for his eminent service as a jurist and legal scholar. Publications[edit] Books[edit] In May 2011, Oxford University Press published a five-volume collection of essays by John Finnis and a second edition of Natural Law and Natural Rights. Their release was marked by an all-day conference at the Notre Dame Law School on 9 September 2011. Natural Law and Natural Rights, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980; 2nd ed., 2011. ISBN 9780199599134. Fundamentals of Ethics, Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1983. ISBN 978-0878404087. Nuclear Deterrence, Morality, and Realism, with J. M. Boyle Jr. and Germain Grisez, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987. ISBN 978-0198247913. Natural Law, 2 vols (as editor), New York: New York University Press, 1991. ISBN 978-0814726037 and ISBN 978-0814726044. Moral Absolutes: Tradition, Revision and Truth, Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1991. ISBN 978-0813207452. Aquinas: Moral, Political, and Legal Theory, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 978-0198780854. The Collected Essays of John Finnis, 5 vols, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. ISBN 9780199689934. Articles[edit] Aquinas' Moral, Political and Legal Philosophy The Profound Injustice of Justice Posner on Marriage Natural Law: The Classical Tradition PDF (Internet Archive) The Priority of Persons PDF "Economy or Explication? Telling the Truth About God and Man in a Pluralist Society" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 July 2010. The Good of Marriage and the Morality of Sexual Relations PDF Law, Morality and "Sexual Orientation" PDF Video lectures[edit] God and Man Religious Liberty References[edit] ^ a b Gorsuch, Neil McGill (2004). The right to receive assistance in suicide and euthanasia, with particular reference to the law of the United States. ora.ox.ac.uk (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC 59196002. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.401384. ^ http://ethicscenter.nd.edu/people/fellows/research/ ^ Notre Dame Faculty Page for John Finnis ^ "Lord Chancellor welcomes historic promotion of talent for new silks - Press releases - GOV.UK". gov.uk. Retrieved 24 January 2017. ^ "Queen's Birthday 2019 Honours List" (PDF). Governor-General of Australia. 10 June 2019. Retrieved 11 June 2019.[permanent dead link] ^ Finnis, John Mitchell (1965). The idea of judicial power, with special reference to Australian law. ora.ox.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC 694895648. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.671295. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 7 September 2011. Retrieved 26 September 2011.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), Oxford Law Faculty, retrieved 25 March 2008. ^ a b Greenya, John (2018). Gorsuch: The Judge Who Speaks for Himself. Threshold Editions. Page 47. ^ Video on YouTube ^ Stephen Buckle, "Natural Law" in Peter Singer (ed.), A Companion to Ethics. Blackwell Publishers, 1997, ch. 13, p. 171. ^ Aquinas, Finnis and Non-Naturalism, Craig Paterson, "Aquinas, Finnis and Non-Naturalism" in Craig Paterson & Matthew Pugh (eds.), Analytical Thomism: Traditions in Dialogue. Ashgate, 2006, ch. 9, pp. 171–93. ^ Sullivan, Andrew. Virtually Normal: An Argument About Homosexuality. Picador: London, 1996. pp. 98–99 ^ Stein, Edward, The Mismeasure of Desire: The Science, Theory, and Ethics of Sexual Orientation. Oxford University Press, 1999. p. 356 ^ George, Robert Peter (2014). Constitutional Structures and Civic Virtues. Emory University. ^ Reason, Morality and Law: The Philosophy of John Finnis, edited John Keown and Robert P George, OUP, 2013 v t e Jurisprudence Legal theory Critical legal studies Comparative law Economic analysis Legal norms International legal theory Legal history Philosophy of law Sociology of law Philosophers Alexy Allan Aquinas Aristotle Austin Beccaria Bentham Betti Bickel Blackstone Bobbio Bork Brożek Cardozo Castanheira Neves Chafee Coleman Del Vecchio Durkheim Dworkin Ehrlich Feinberg Fineman Finnis Frank Fuller Gardner George Green Grisez Grotius Gurvitch Habermas Han Hart Hegel Hobbes Hohfeld Hägerström Jellinek Jhering Kant Kelsen Köchler Kramer Llewellyn Lombardía Luhmann Lundstedt Lyons MacCormick Marx Nussbaum Olivecrona Pashukanis Perelman Petrażycki Pontes de Miranda Posner Pound Puchta Pufendorf Radbruch Rawls Raz Reale Reinach Renner Ross Rumi Savigny Scaevola Schauer Schmitt Shang Simmonds Somló Suárez Tribe Unger Voegelin Waldron Walzer Weber Wronkowska Ziembiński Znamierowski Theories Analytical jurisprudence Deontological ethics Fundamental theory of canon law Interpretivism Legalism Legal moralism Legal positivism Legal realism Libertarian theories of law Natural law Paternalism Utilitarianism Virtue jurisprudence Concepts Dharma Fa Judicial interpretation Justice Legal system Li Rational-legal authority Usul al-Fiqh Related articles Law Political philosophy Index Category Law portal Philosophy portal WikiProject Law WikiProject Philosophy changes Authority control BIBSYS: 90177088 BNE: XX956421 BNF: cb12292498s (data) CANTIC: a1187076x CiNii: DA00574382 GND: 119117134 ISNI: 0000 0001 2145 8094 LCCN: n83217830 LNB: 000068779 NKC: jcu2011637931 NLA: 35537440 NSK: 000345764 NTA: 068327544 PLWABN: 9810599192805606 RERO: 02-A003244016 SELIBR: 346563 SNAC: w6t82wk5 SUDOC: 028522109 VcBA: 495/128252 VIAF: 101936374 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n83217830 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Finnis&oldid=991277163" Categories: 1940 births 20th-century Australian philosophers 21st-century Australian philosophers Australian legal scholars Australian philosophers Australian political philosophers Fellows of University College, Oxford Living people Philosophers of law Catholic philosophers Adelaide Law School alumni University of Notre Dame faculty Notre Dame Law School faculty Legal scholars of the University of Oxford Companions of the Order of Australia Honorary Queen's Counsel Fellows of the British Academy Alumni of University College, Oxford Australian Rhodes Scholars University of Malawi faculty Hidden categories: All articles with dead external links Articles with dead external links from February 2020 Articles with permanently dead external links CS1 maint: archived copy as title Use Australian English from October 2016 All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English Use dmy dates from August 2014 Articles with hCards Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNE identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers Wikipedia articles with CINII identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with LNB identifiers Wikipedia articles with NKC identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLA identifiers Wikipedia articles with NSK identifiers Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers Wikipedia articles with RERO identifiers Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers Wikipedia articles with VcBA identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version Languages Čeština Eesti Español Français مصرى Norsk bokmål Polski Português Русский Svenska Українська Edit links This page was last edited on 29 November 2020, at 06:08 (UTC). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers Contact Wikipedia Mobile view Developers Statistics Cookie statement