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Brownlee, Kimberley (2015) What’s virtuous about the Law? Legal Theory, 21 (1). pp. 1-17. doi:10.1017/S1352325215000038 ISSN 1352-3252.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1352325215000038
Abstract
Debates about our moral relation to the law typically focus on the moral force of law. Often, the question asked is: Do we have a moral duty to follow the law? Recently, that question has been given a virtue-ethical formulation: Is there a virtue in abiding by the law? This paper considers our moral relation to the law in terms of virtue, but focuses on a different question from the traditional ones. The question here is: Can the law model virtue in beneficial ways that enable us to cultivate virtue? This paper shows that the law can do this by setting a moral example that we have good reason to emulate. This is significant given the distinctive influence the law has over our lives. The paper begins by examining the nature of a model, comparing different models of virtue, and then questioning the possibility of a complete model of virtue such as the so called Virtuous Person. The paper then articulates several ways in which the law can model virtue for us, and responds to three objections: 1) the embodiment problem, 2) the poisoning problem, and 3) the emulation problem.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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Subjects: | K Law [Moys] > KA Jurisprudence | ||||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law | ||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Law and ethics, Cardinal virtues | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Legal Theory | ||||||||
Publisher: | Cambridge University Press | ||||||||
ISSN: | 1352-3252 | ||||||||
Official Date: | March 2015 | ||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 21 | ||||||||
Number: | 1 | ||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 1-17 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.1017/S1352325215000038 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 29 December 2015 | ||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 29 December 2015 |
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