Virtue jurisprudence
In the philosophy of law, virtue jurisprudence is the name given to theories of law related to virtue ethics. By making the aretaic turn in legal theory, virtue jurisprudence focuses on the importance of character and human excellence or virtue to questions about the nature of law, the content of the law, and judging.
The Topics Encompassed by Virtue Jurisprudence
Among the topics encompassed by virtue jurisprudence are the following:
- Virtue ethics has implications for an account of the proper ends of legislation. If the aim of law is to make citizens virtuous (as opposed to maximizing utility or realizing a set of moral rights), what are the implications for the content of the laws?
- Virtue ethics has implications for legal ethics. Current approaches to legal ethics emphasize deontological moral theory, i.e. duties to clients and respect for client autonomy, and these deontological approaches are reflected in the various codes of professional conduct that have been devised for lawyers, judges, and legislators.
- Accounts of the virtue of justice (in particular, Aristotle and Aquinas’s theories of natural justice) have implications for debates between natural lawyers and legal positivists over the nature of law.
- A virtue-centered theory of judging, which describes the particular excellences required by judges.
Aretaic Theories of Judging
The Judicial Virtues
The most developed aspect of virtue jurisprudence is its distinctive theory of judging. A virtue-centered theory of judging offers an account of the characteristics or excellences that make for a good judge. These include: (1) judicial temperance, (2) judicial courage, (3) judicial temperament, (4) judicial intelligence, (5) judicial wisdom, and (6) justice. Although every theory of judging can incorporate some account of judicial virtue, a virtue-centered theory of judging makes the distinctive claim that the judicial virtues are central, i.e. that they have basic explanatory and normative significance.
Criticism of a Virtue-Centered Theory of Judging
Many of the criticisms of virtue jurisprudence are parallel to those offered in the context of debates over virtue ethics. Some of these include:
- The charge that virtue jurisprudence does not provide sufficient guidance for the making of legal decisions. "Do as a virtuous judge would do!" This formula provides little instruction to an ordinary decision maker.
- The argument that virtue jurisprudence requires inordinate trust in the capacities of judges. In a democratic society, the rightness or wrongness of legal decisions should be decided by criteria are public and accessible to all citizens.
Virtue as the Proper End of Law
Aristotle argued that the inculcation of promotion of virtue was the proper end of law. A contemporary restatement of this view is found in the writings of Robert George. In his book, Making Men Moral, George argues for the promotion of virtue as the end of law and against the contrary view that the purpose of law is the protection of rights.
This view contrasts markedly with traditional Chinese thinking on the subject which argues that laws exist because men are lacking in virtue. Confucianism places very little faith on the ability of law or external pressure to make men moral but rather believes that virtue most come from introspection and education.
Law and Virtue Outside the Western Tradition
The phrase "virtue jurisprudence" is usually applied in the context of contemporary Western philosophical thinking about law. There are, however, important ideas about the relationship between law and virtue in other intellectual traditions. One example is provided by Confucian ideas about virtue. In the Analects, Confucius argues that a society in which people are virtuous would have no need of judges, rules, or jurisprudence because people would be able to resolve social conflicts by themselves. Thus, it might be argued that the idea of virtue is opposed to the idea of law. It is not clear, however, that this is correct. Even virtuous citizens might disagree about the application of the law, especially where their own interests or ideological commitments are at stake.
References
- R.A. Duff, The Limits of Virtue Jurisprudence, Metaphilosophy, Volume 34 Issue 1-2 Page 214 - January 2003.
- Robert P. George, Making Men Moral (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993) ISBN: 0-19-825424-5.
- Kyron Huigens, Nietzsche and Aretaic Legal Theory (2003)
- Lawrence B. Solum, Virtue Jurisprudence: A Virtue-Centered Theory of Judging, Metaphilosophy, Volume 34 Issue 1-2 Page 178 - January 2003.