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Natural Law in Court: A History of Legal Theory in Practice
Natural-law theory grounds human laws in universal truths of God’s creation. The task of the judicial system was to build an edifice of positive law on natural law’s foundations. R. H. Helmholz shows how lawyers and judges made and interpreted natural law arguments in the West, and concludes that historically it has advanced the cause of justice.
- GenresLaw
285 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 8, 2015
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About the author
R.H. Helmholz
25 books14 followersR.H. 'Dick' Helmholz, Ph.D. (Medieval History, University of California at Berkeley, 1970; LL.B., Harvard Law School, 1965; A.B., French Literature, Princeton University, 1962) is the Ruth Wyatt Rosenson Distinguished Service Professor of Law at The University of Chicago Law School.
In the course of his career, he has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize. In the academic year 2000–1, he served as Arthur Goodhart Professor of Law in Cambridge University, where he was also elected to a fellowship at Gonville and Caius College. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, a Member of the American Law Institute, and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.
His teaching interests have been centered in the law of property and in various aspects of natural resources law. His research interests have been concentrated in legal history. In the latter, his principal contribution has been to show the relevance of the Roman and canon laws to the development of the common law.
In the course of his career, he has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize. In the academic year 2000–1, he served as Arthur Goodhart Professor of Law in Cambridge University, where he was also elected to a fellowship at Gonville and Caius College. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, a Member of the American Law Institute, and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.
His teaching interests have been centered in the law of property and in various aspects of natural resources law. His research interests have been concentrated in legal history. In the latter, his principal contribution has been to show the relevance of the Roman and canon laws to the development of the common law.
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July 7, 2021
Helmholz does a fine job with what he sets out to accomplish. His limited scope was the natural law’s impact on legal training and practice in three different places and at certain time periods (Continental Europe from 1500-1800; England for the same time period; and America from 1776 to 1860). And his goal for the book was to show that natural law has been used in court and in everyday law practice and has had an impact on legal decisions in these three settings.
After reviewing the record, his conclusion is that natural law did have a role in legal training and law practice and has been used in court. But natural law's influence was more at times and less at others, and its influence waned significantly in the United States over the years discussed, and its role in legal training for some students in England and the United States is mainly speculative, etc., etc. With all the qualifications (which are not developed and are intentionally excluded from the book's scope), the thesis loses much of its punch, except to support the elemental claim: that those who argue that natural law has never played a role in the actual practice of law are mistaken. And this is certainly a necessary point, but it's a very minimal one.
After reviewing the record, his conclusion is that natural law did have a role in legal training and law practice and has been used in court. But natural law's influence was more at times and less at others, and its influence waned significantly in the United States over the years discussed, and its role in legal training for some students in England and the United States is mainly speculative, etc., etc. With all the qualifications (which are not developed and are intentionally excluded from the book's scope), the thesis loses much of its punch, except to support the elemental claim: that those who argue that natural law has never played a role in the actual practice of law are mistaken. And this is certainly a necessary point, but it's a very minimal one.
Displaying 1 of 1 review