Tag: Natural Law

Topics

Books

Recent Criticism of Natural Law Theory

– University of Chicago Law Review 55:4 (Fall, 1988). Reprinted in Tom Campbell (ed.), International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory (Dartmouth Publishing Co. and NYU Press, 1991).

Judges and Natural Law

– Washington Post, August 12, 1991.
Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas has expressed a belief in natural law and natural rights. In the overheated, brightly lit arena of Supreme Court politics, that simple allegiance has… More

Natural Law and Human Nature

– In Robert P. George (ed.), Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays (Oxford University Press, 1992). Reprinted in Spanish translation in Anuario de Filosofia Juridica y Social 20 (2000).

Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays

– Oxford University Press, 1992.
Description from Publisher: Natural law theory is enjoying a revival of interest in a variety of scholarly disciplines including law, philosophy, political science, and theology and… More

The New Natural Law Theory: A Reply to Jean Porter

– American Journal of Jurisprudence 39 (1994), with Gerard Bradley.
The theory of practical reasoning and morality proposed by Germain Grisez, and developed by him in frequent collaboration with John Finnis and Joseph Boyle, is the most formidable… More

Natural Law, Liberalism, and Morality

– Oxford University Press, 1996.
Description from Publisher: This work brings together leading defenders of Natural Law and Liberalism for a series of frank and lively exchanges touching upon critical issues of… More

Natural Law and International Order

– In Terry Nardin (ed.), The Constitution of International Society (Princeton University Press, 1996). Reprinted in Kenneth Grasso, et al. (eds.), Catholicism, Liberalism, and Communitarianism (Rowman and Littlefield, 1995).

The Autonomy of Law: Essays on Legal Positivism

– Oxford University Press, 1996.
Description from Publisher: This collection of original essays from distinguished legal philosophers offers a challenging assessment of the nature and viability of legal positivism, an… More

Natural Law and Positive Law

– In Robert P. George (ed.), The Autonomy of Law:  Essays on Legal Positivism (Oxford University Press, 1996). Reprinted in David McLean (ed.), Common Truths:  New Perspectives on the Natural Law (ISI Books, 1999); in Aileen Kavanagh and John Oberdiek, Arguing about Law (Routledge, 2009); and in Spanish translation in Persona y Derecho 39 (1998).

Natural Law Ethics

– In Philip L. Quinn and Charles Taliaferro (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Religion (Blackwell Publishers, 1996).
Natural law is the body of moral norms and other practical principles which provide reasons (including moral reasons) for action and restraint. The most basic precepts of natural law direct… More

The Tyrant State

– First Things, November 1996. Reprinted in Mitchell S. Muncy (ed.), The End of Democracy? The Judicial Usurpation of Politics (Spence Publishing, 1997).
America’s democratic experiment has been remarkably successful. Constitutional democracy in the United States has survived a civil war, a great depression, and two world wars. Our nation… More

Natural Law and Liberal Public Reason

– American Journal of Jurisprudence 42:1 (January 1997), with Christopher Wolfe.
As the century winds to a close, John Rawls remains a–perhaps the–central figure in Anglo-American political philosophy. In his 1993 book, Political Liberalism, Rawls… More

Kelsen and Aquinas on “The Natural Law Doctrine”

– In Georges Mazur (ed.), Hans Kelsen: A Twenty-Five Year Commemoration (Semenenko Foundation, 1999). Reprinted in Notre Dame Law Review 75:5 (August 2000); John Goyette, Mark S. Latkovic, and Richard S. Myers (eds.), St. Thomas Aquinas and the Natural Law Tradition (Catholic University of America Press, 2004). Reprinted in Spanish translation (“El Tribunal de la Teoria Pura”) in Persona y Derecho, Vol. “Cambio Social y Transicion Juridica” (2000).
The fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Hans Kelsen’s influential essay, The Natural-Law Doctrine Before the Tribunal of Science, provides an occasion to revisit a work in… More

In Defense of Natural Law

– Oxford University Press, 1999.
Description from Publisher: In Making Men Moral, his 1995 book, George questioned the central doctrines of liberal jurisprudence and political theory. In his new work he extends his… More

One Hundred Years of Legal Philosophy

– Notre Dame Law Review 74:5 (1999). Reprinted in Brian J. Shanley (ed.), One Hundred Years of Philosophy (Catholic University of America Press, 2001), and as “What is Law? A Century of Arguments,” in First Things 112 (April 2001).
There is a sense in which twentieth century legal philosophy began on January 8, 1897. On that day, Oliver Wendell Holmes, then a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts,… More

A Clash of Orthodoxies

– First Things, August 1999.
A few years ago, the eminent Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington published in Foreign Affairs a widely noted article called “The Clash of Civilizations.” Looking at… More

Natural Law and Public Reason

– In Robert P. George and Christopher Wolfe (eds.), Natural Law and Public Reason (Georgetown University Press, 2000), with Christopher Wolfe.
Stephen Macedo, in his Liberal Virtues and in a number of separately published articles, has defended a liberal doctrine of public reason, one which he considers to be in line with John… More

Natural Law and Public Reason

– With Christopher Wolfe, eds. Georgetown University Press, 2000.
Description from Publisher: “Public reason” is one of the central concepts in modern liberal political theory. As articulated by John Rawls, it presents a way to overcome the… More

Reason, Freedom, and the Rule of Law

– American Journal of Jurisprudence 46 (2001). Reprinted in the American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Philosophy and Law 1:1 (Fall 2001), Regent University Law Review 15:2 (2002-2003), Charles W. Dunn (ed.), Faith, Freedom, and the Future:  Religion in American Political Culture (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), The Clarion Review 2 (2004), and Michael  A. Scaperlanda and Teresa Stanton Collet (eds.), Recovering Self-Evident Truths:  Catholic Perspectives on American Law (Catholic University of America Press, 2007).
The idea of law and the ideal of the rule of law are central to the natural law tradition of thought about public (or “political”) order. St. Thomas Aquinas went so far as to… More

The Natural Law Due Process Philosophy

– Fordham Law Review 69:6 (2001). Reprinted in T. Campbell (ed.), International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, 2nd Series (Dartmouth Publishing Co. and Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2003).
I am grateful to Joseph Koterski and James Fleming for their comments on my paper. Father Koterski and I agree more than we disagree. Things are the other way with Professor Fleming, so I… More

Natural Law and the Constitution Revisited

– Fordham Law Review 70:2 (2001).
James Fleming says that I have misinterpreted him on several points. My essay, Fleming’s critique, and my reply to his critique’ are now before the reader. Happily, anyone who… More

Oliver Wendell Holmes on Natural Law

– Villanova Law Review 48:1 (2002). Reprinted in Regent University Law Review 15:2 (Spring 2002-2003); The Good Society 12:3 (2003); and Jean DeGroot (ed.), Nature in American Philosophy (Catholic University of America Press, 2004).
My dear Laski, Your remark about the “oughts” and system of values in political science leaves me rather cold. If, as I think, the values are simply generalizations emotionally… More

Conservative Heavyweight

– Anne Morse, Crisis Magazine, September 1, 2003.
Excerpt: Professor Robert P. George is pacing around a Princeton auditorium before 200-plus undergraduates, preparing to wage an intellectual shock-and-awe campaign against illogical… More

Heretic in the Temple

– J. I. Merritt, Princeton Alumni Weekly, October 8, 2003.
Excerpt: The lecturer in Politics 315 – Constitutional Interpretation, or “Coninterp,” as generations of students have called it – came to class, as usual, wearing a dark… More

The Unorthodox Liberalism of Joseph Raz

– Revised and expanded in Christopher Wolfe (ed.), Liberalism at the Crossroads, 2nd Edition (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003). Original version published in The Review of Politics 53:4 (Fall 1991). Reprinted in Christopher Wolfe and John Hittinger (eds.), Liberalism at the Crossroads (Rowman & Littlefield, 1994).
Abstract (from The Review of Politics): In The Morality of Freedom, Joseph Raz has challenged the anti-perfectionism of orthodox liberal political theory and proposed an alternative form of… More

Natural Law

– Harvard Law Review 31:1 (2007).
Excerpt: Oliver Wendell Holmes, the legal philosopher and judge whom Richard Posner has, with admiration, dubbed “the American Nietzsche,” established in the minds of many people a… More

Natural Law

– In Keith Whittington, R. Daniel Kelemen, and Gregory A. Caldeira (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Law and Politics (Oxford University Press, 2008).
Abstract: Theories of natural law propose to identify fundamental aspects of human well-being and fulfillment (“basic human goods”), and norms of conduct entailed by their integral… More

What is Marriage?

– Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 34:1 (Winter, 2010), with Sherif Girgis and Ryan T. Anderson.
What is marriage? Consider two competing views: Conjugal View: Marriage is the union of a man and a woman who make a permanent and exclusive commitment to each other of the type that is… More

Natural Law, God, and Human Dignity

– Gospel and Culture Lecture at the Center for Faith & Work, March 20, 2011, YouTube.
Natural law theorists believe that since all humans are made in the image of God, every person possesses irreducible capacities for rationality, freedom, and moral discernment. Natural law… More

Natural Law

– In the International Encyclopedia of Ethics (John Wiley and Sons, 2013), with Christopher Tollefsen.
Abstract: Natural law ethics forms a distinctive family of ethical theories, all of which take the human good, or human well-being, as central to their theoretical approach. After a period… More

Reason, Morality, and Law: The Philosophy of John Finnis

– With John Keown, eds. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Description from Publisher: John Finnis is a pioneer in the development of a new yet classically-grounded theory of natural law. His work offers a systematic philosophy of practical… More

What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense

– The Wheatley Institution, April 10, 2013, YouTube.
Lecture entitled, “What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense” given by Sherif Girgis, Ryan Anderson, and Robert George at The Wheatley Institution on April 10, 2013.

A Second Look at First Things: A Case for Conservative Politics

– With F. Beckwith and S. McWilliams, eds., St. Augustine’s Press, 2013.
Excerpt: The conservative movement in America seems to have fallen on hard times. Even though conservative talk radio is at its height, and President Obama had to shift to the political… More

Liberty and Conscience

– National Affairs, Fall 2013.
One of the more dubious achievements of the Obama administration has been to put religious freedom and the rights of conscience back on the agenda in American politics. Most notoriously,… More

C-SPAN Appearances

– C-SPAN.
Follow the link to all of Robert George’s video lectures and discussions of religious freedom, U.S. foreign policy, immigration, the Constitution and more.

Essays

Recent Criticism of Natural Law Theory

– University of Chicago Law Review 55:4 (Fall, 1988). Reprinted in Tom Campbell (ed.), International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory (Dartmouth Publishing Co. and NYU Press, 1991).

Judges and Natural Law

– Washington Post, August 12, 1991.
Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas has expressed a belief in natural law and natural rights. In the overheated, brightly lit arena of Supreme Court politics, that simple allegiance has… More

Natural Law and Human Nature

– In Robert P. George (ed.), Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays (Oxford University Press, 1992). Reprinted in Spanish translation in Anuario de Filosofia Juridica y Social 20 (2000).

Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays

– Oxford University Press, 1992.
Description from Publisher: Natural law theory is enjoying a revival of interest in a variety of scholarly disciplines including law, philosophy, political science, and theology and… More

The New Natural Law Theory: A Reply to Jean Porter

– American Journal of Jurisprudence 39 (1994), with Gerard Bradley.
The theory of practical reasoning and morality proposed by Germain Grisez, and developed by him in frequent collaboration with John Finnis and Joseph Boyle, is the most formidable… More

Natural Law, Liberalism, and Morality

– Oxford University Press, 1996.
Description from Publisher: This work brings together leading defenders of Natural Law and Liberalism for a series of frank and lively exchanges touching upon critical issues of… More

Natural Law and International Order

– In Terry Nardin (ed.), The Constitution of International Society (Princeton University Press, 1996). Reprinted in Kenneth Grasso, et al. (eds.), Catholicism, Liberalism, and Communitarianism (Rowman and Littlefield, 1995).

The Autonomy of Law: Essays on Legal Positivism

– Oxford University Press, 1996.
Description from Publisher: This collection of original essays from distinguished legal philosophers offers a challenging assessment of the nature and viability of legal positivism, an… More

Natural Law and Positive Law

– In Robert P. George (ed.), The Autonomy of Law:  Essays on Legal Positivism (Oxford University Press, 1996). Reprinted in David McLean (ed.), Common Truths:  New Perspectives on the Natural Law (ISI Books, 1999); in Aileen Kavanagh and John Oberdiek, Arguing about Law (Routledge, 2009); and in Spanish translation in Persona y Derecho 39 (1998).

Natural Law Ethics

– In Philip L. Quinn and Charles Taliaferro (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Religion (Blackwell Publishers, 1996).
Natural law is the body of moral norms and other practical principles which provide reasons (including moral reasons) for action and restraint. The most basic precepts of natural law direct… More

The Tyrant State

– First Things, November 1996. Reprinted in Mitchell S. Muncy (ed.), The End of Democracy? The Judicial Usurpation of Politics (Spence Publishing, 1997).
America’s democratic experiment has been remarkably successful. Constitutional democracy in the United States has survived a civil war, a great depression, and two world wars. Our nation… More

Natural Law and Liberal Public Reason

– American Journal of Jurisprudence 42:1 (January 1997), with Christopher Wolfe.
As the century winds to a close, John Rawls remains a–perhaps the–central figure in Anglo-American political philosophy. In his 1993 book, Political Liberalism, Rawls… More

Kelsen and Aquinas on “The Natural Law Doctrine”

– In Georges Mazur (ed.), Hans Kelsen: A Twenty-Five Year Commemoration (Semenenko Foundation, 1999). Reprinted in Notre Dame Law Review 75:5 (August 2000); John Goyette, Mark S. Latkovic, and Richard S. Myers (eds.), St. Thomas Aquinas and the Natural Law Tradition (Catholic University of America Press, 2004). Reprinted in Spanish translation (“El Tribunal de la Teoria Pura”) in Persona y Derecho, Vol. “Cambio Social y Transicion Juridica” (2000).
The fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Hans Kelsen’s influential essay, The Natural-Law Doctrine Before the Tribunal of Science, provides an occasion to revisit a work in… More

In Defense of Natural Law

– Oxford University Press, 1999.
Description from Publisher: In Making Men Moral, his 1995 book, George questioned the central doctrines of liberal jurisprudence and political theory. In his new work he extends his… More

One Hundred Years of Legal Philosophy

– Notre Dame Law Review 74:5 (1999). Reprinted in Brian J. Shanley (ed.), One Hundred Years of Philosophy (Catholic University of America Press, 2001), and as “What is Law? A Century of Arguments,” in First Things 112 (April 2001).
There is a sense in which twentieth century legal philosophy began on January 8, 1897. On that day, Oliver Wendell Holmes, then a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts,… More

A Clash of Orthodoxies

– First Things, August 1999.
A few years ago, the eminent Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington published in Foreign Affairs a widely noted article called “The Clash of Civilizations.” Looking at… More

Natural Law and Public Reason

– In Robert P. George and Christopher Wolfe (eds.), Natural Law and Public Reason (Georgetown University Press, 2000), with Christopher Wolfe.
Stephen Macedo, in his Liberal Virtues and in a number of separately published articles, has defended a liberal doctrine of public reason, one which he considers to be in line with John… More

Natural Law and Public Reason

– With Christopher Wolfe, eds. Georgetown University Press, 2000.
Description from Publisher: “Public reason” is one of the central concepts in modern liberal political theory. As articulated by John Rawls, it presents a way to overcome the… More

Reason, Freedom, and the Rule of Law

– American Journal of Jurisprudence 46 (2001). Reprinted in the American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Philosophy and Law 1:1 (Fall 2001), Regent University Law Review 15:2 (2002-2003), Charles W. Dunn (ed.), Faith, Freedom, and the Future:  Religion in American Political Culture (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), The Clarion Review 2 (2004), and Michael  A. Scaperlanda and Teresa Stanton Collet (eds.), Recovering Self-Evident Truths:  Catholic Perspectives on American Law (Catholic University of America Press, 2007).
The idea of law and the ideal of the rule of law are central to the natural law tradition of thought about public (or “political”) order. St. Thomas Aquinas went so far as to… More

The Natural Law Due Process Philosophy

– Fordham Law Review 69:6 (2001). Reprinted in T. Campbell (ed.), International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, 2nd Series (Dartmouth Publishing Co. and Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2003).
I am grateful to Joseph Koterski and James Fleming for their comments on my paper. Father Koterski and I agree more than we disagree. Things are the other way with Professor Fleming, so I… More

Natural Law and the Constitution Revisited

– Fordham Law Review 70:2 (2001).
James Fleming says that I have misinterpreted him on several points. My essay, Fleming’s critique, and my reply to his critique’ are now before the reader. Happily, anyone who… More

Oliver Wendell Holmes on Natural Law

– Villanova Law Review 48:1 (2002). Reprinted in Regent University Law Review 15:2 (Spring 2002-2003); The Good Society 12:3 (2003); and Jean DeGroot (ed.), Nature in American Philosophy (Catholic University of America Press, 2004).
My dear Laski, Your remark about the “oughts” and system of values in political science leaves me rather cold. If, as I think, the values are simply generalizations emotionally… More

Conservative Heavyweight

– Anne Morse, Crisis Magazine, September 1, 2003.
Excerpt: Professor Robert P. George is pacing around a Princeton auditorium before 200-plus undergraduates, preparing to wage an intellectual shock-and-awe campaign against illogical… More

Heretic in the Temple

– J. I. Merritt, Princeton Alumni Weekly, October 8, 2003.
Excerpt: The lecturer in Politics 315 – Constitutional Interpretation, or “Coninterp,” as generations of students have called it – came to class, as usual, wearing a dark… More

The Unorthodox Liberalism of Joseph Raz

– Revised and expanded in Christopher Wolfe (ed.), Liberalism at the Crossroads, 2nd Edition (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003). Original version published in The Review of Politics 53:4 (Fall 1991). Reprinted in Christopher Wolfe and John Hittinger (eds.), Liberalism at the Crossroads (Rowman & Littlefield, 1994).
Abstract (from The Review of Politics): In The Morality of Freedom, Joseph Raz has challenged the anti-perfectionism of orthodox liberal political theory and proposed an alternative form of… More

Natural Law

– Harvard Law Review 31:1 (2007).
Excerpt: Oliver Wendell Holmes, the legal philosopher and judge whom Richard Posner has, with admiration, dubbed “the American Nietzsche,” established in the minds of many people a… More

Natural Law

– In Keith Whittington, R. Daniel Kelemen, and Gregory A. Caldeira (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Law and Politics (Oxford University Press, 2008).
Abstract: Theories of natural law propose to identify fundamental aspects of human well-being and fulfillment (“basic human goods”), and norms of conduct entailed by their integral… More

What is Marriage?

– Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 34:1 (Winter, 2010), with Sherif Girgis and Ryan T. Anderson.
What is marriage? Consider two competing views: Conjugal View: Marriage is the union of a man and a woman who make a permanent and exclusive commitment to each other of the type that is… More

Natural Law, God, and Human Dignity

– Gospel and Culture Lecture at the Center for Faith & Work, March 20, 2011, YouTube.
Natural law theorists believe that since all humans are made in the image of God, every person possesses irreducible capacities for rationality, freedom, and moral discernment. Natural law… More

Natural Law

– In the International Encyclopedia of Ethics (John Wiley and Sons, 2013), with Christopher Tollefsen.
Abstract: Natural law ethics forms a distinctive family of ethical theories, all of which take the human good, or human well-being, as central to their theoretical approach. After a period… More

Reason, Morality, and Law: The Philosophy of John Finnis

– With John Keown, eds. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Description from Publisher: John Finnis is a pioneer in the development of a new yet classically-grounded theory of natural law. His work offers a systematic philosophy of practical… More

What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense

– The Wheatley Institution, April 10, 2013, YouTube.
Lecture entitled, “What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense” given by Sherif Girgis, Ryan Anderson, and Robert George at The Wheatley Institution on April 10, 2013.

A Second Look at First Things: A Case for Conservative Politics

– With F. Beckwith and S. McWilliams, eds., St. Augustine’s Press, 2013.
Excerpt: The conservative movement in America seems to have fallen on hard times. Even though conservative talk radio is at its height, and President Obama had to shift to the political… More

Liberty and Conscience

– National Affairs, Fall 2013.
One of the more dubious achievements of the Obama administration has been to put religious freedom and the rights of conscience back on the agenda in American politics. Most notoriously,… More

C-SPAN Appearances

– C-SPAN.
Follow the link to all of Robert George’s video lectures and discussions of religious freedom, U.S. foreign policy, immigration, the Constitution and more.

Commentary

Recent Criticism of Natural Law Theory

– University of Chicago Law Review 55:4 (Fall, 1988). Reprinted in Tom Campbell (ed.), International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory (Dartmouth Publishing Co. and NYU Press, 1991).

Judges and Natural Law

– Washington Post, August 12, 1991.
Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas has expressed a belief in natural law and natural rights. In the overheated, brightly lit arena of Supreme Court politics, that simple allegiance has… More

Natural Law and Human Nature

– In Robert P. George (ed.), Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays (Oxford University Press, 1992). Reprinted in Spanish translation in Anuario de Filosofia Juridica y Social 20 (2000).

Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays

– Oxford University Press, 1992.
Description from Publisher: Natural law theory is enjoying a revival of interest in a variety of scholarly disciplines including law, philosophy, political science, and theology and… More

The New Natural Law Theory: A Reply to Jean Porter

– American Journal of Jurisprudence 39 (1994), with Gerard Bradley.
The theory of practical reasoning and morality proposed by Germain Grisez, and developed by him in frequent collaboration with John Finnis and Joseph Boyle, is the most formidable… More

Natural Law, Liberalism, and Morality

– Oxford University Press, 1996.
Description from Publisher: This work brings together leading defenders of Natural Law and Liberalism for a series of frank and lively exchanges touching upon critical issues of… More

Natural Law and International Order

– In Terry Nardin (ed.), The Constitution of International Society (Princeton University Press, 1996). Reprinted in Kenneth Grasso, et al. (eds.), Catholicism, Liberalism, and Communitarianism (Rowman and Littlefield, 1995).

The Autonomy of Law: Essays on Legal Positivism

– Oxford University Press, 1996.
Description from Publisher: This collection of original essays from distinguished legal philosophers offers a challenging assessment of the nature and viability of legal positivism, an… More

Natural Law and Positive Law

– In Robert P. George (ed.), The Autonomy of Law:  Essays on Legal Positivism (Oxford University Press, 1996). Reprinted in David McLean (ed.), Common Truths:  New Perspectives on the Natural Law (ISI Books, 1999); in Aileen Kavanagh and John Oberdiek, Arguing about Law (Routledge, 2009); and in Spanish translation in Persona y Derecho 39 (1998).

Natural Law Ethics

– In Philip L. Quinn and Charles Taliaferro (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Religion (Blackwell Publishers, 1996).
Natural law is the body of moral norms and other practical principles which provide reasons (including moral reasons) for action and restraint. The most basic precepts of natural law direct… More

The Tyrant State

– First Things, November 1996. Reprinted in Mitchell S. Muncy (ed.), The End of Democracy? The Judicial Usurpation of Politics (Spence Publishing, 1997).
America’s democratic experiment has been remarkably successful. Constitutional democracy in the United States has survived a civil war, a great depression, and two world wars. Our nation… More

Natural Law and Liberal Public Reason

– American Journal of Jurisprudence 42:1 (January 1997), with Christopher Wolfe.
As the century winds to a close, John Rawls remains a–perhaps the–central figure in Anglo-American political philosophy. In his 1993 book, Political Liberalism, Rawls… More

Kelsen and Aquinas on “The Natural Law Doctrine”

– In Georges Mazur (ed.), Hans Kelsen: A Twenty-Five Year Commemoration (Semenenko Foundation, 1999). Reprinted in Notre Dame Law Review 75:5 (August 2000); John Goyette, Mark S. Latkovic, and Richard S. Myers (eds.), St. Thomas Aquinas and the Natural Law Tradition (Catholic University of America Press, 2004). Reprinted in Spanish translation (“El Tribunal de la Teoria Pura”) in Persona y Derecho, Vol. “Cambio Social y Transicion Juridica” (2000).
The fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Hans Kelsen’s influential essay, The Natural-Law Doctrine Before the Tribunal of Science, provides an occasion to revisit a work in… More

In Defense of Natural Law

– Oxford University Press, 1999.
Description from Publisher: In Making Men Moral, his 1995 book, George questioned the central doctrines of liberal jurisprudence and political theory. In his new work he extends his… More

One Hundred Years of Legal Philosophy

– Notre Dame Law Review 74:5 (1999). Reprinted in Brian J. Shanley (ed.), One Hundred Years of Philosophy (Catholic University of America Press, 2001), and as “What is Law? A Century of Arguments,” in First Things 112 (April 2001).
There is a sense in which twentieth century legal philosophy began on January 8, 1897. On that day, Oliver Wendell Holmes, then a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts,… More

A Clash of Orthodoxies

– First Things, August 1999.
A few years ago, the eminent Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington published in Foreign Affairs a widely noted article called “The Clash of Civilizations.” Looking at… More

Natural Law and Public Reason

– In Robert P. George and Christopher Wolfe (eds.), Natural Law and Public Reason (Georgetown University Press, 2000), with Christopher Wolfe.
Stephen Macedo, in his Liberal Virtues and in a number of separately published articles, has defended a liberal doctrine of public reason, one which he considers to be in line with John… More

Natural Law and Public Reason

– With Christopher Wolfe, eds. Georgetown University Press, 2000.
Description from Publisher: “Public reason” is one of the central concepts in modern liberal political theory. As articulated by John Rawls, it presents a way to overcome the… More

Reason, Freedom, and the Rule of Law

– American Journal of Jurisprudence 46 (2001). Reprinted in the American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Philosophy and Law 1:1 (Fall 2001), Regent University Law Review 15:2 (2002-2003), Charles W. Dunn (ed.), Faith, Freedom, and the Future:  Religion in American Political Culture (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), The Clarion Review 2 (2004), and Michael  A. Scaperlanda and Teresa Stanton Collet (eds.), Recovering Self-Evident Truths:  Catholic Perspectives on American Law (Catholic University of America Press, 2007).
The idea of law and the ideal of the rule of law are central to the natural law tradition of thought about public (or “political”) order. St. Thomas Aquinas went so far as to… More

The Natural Law Due Process Philosophy

– Fordham Law Review 69:6 (2001). Reprinted in T. Campbell (ed.), International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, 2nd Series (Dartmouth Publishing Co. and Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2003).
I am grateful to Joseph Koterski and James Fleming for their comments on my paper. Father Koterski and I agree more than we disagree. Things are the other way with Professor Fleming, so I… More

Natural Law and the Constitution Revisited

– Fordham Law Review 70:2 (2001).
James Fleming says that I have misinterpreted him on several points. My essay, Fleming’s critique, and my reply to his critique’ are now before the reader. Happily, anyone who… More

Oliver Wendell Holmes on Natural Law

– Villanova Law Review 48:1 (2002). Reprinted in Regent University Law Review 15:2 (Spring 2002-2003); The Good Society 12:3 (2003); and Jean DeGroot (ed.), Nature in American Philosophy (Catholic University of America Press, 2004).
My dear Laski, Your remark about the “oughts” and system of values in political science leaves me rather cold. If, as I think, the values are simply generalizations emotionally… More

Conservative Heavyweight

– Anne Morse, Crisis Magazine, September 1, 2003.
Excerpt: Professor Robert P. George is pacing around a Princeton auditorium before 200-plus undergraduates, preparing to wage an intellectual shock-and-awe campaign against illogical… More

Heretic in the Temple

– J. I. Merritt, Princeton Alumni Weekly, October 8, 2003.
Excerpt: The lecturer in Politics 315 – Constitutional Interpretation, or “Coninterp,” as generations of students have called it – came to class, as usual, wearing a dark… More

The Unorthodox Liberalism of Joseph Raz

– Revised and expanded in Christopher Wolfe (ed.), Liberalism at the Crossroads, 2nd Edition (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003). Original version published in The Review of Politics 53:4 (Fall 1991). Reprinted in Christopher Wolfe and John Hittinger (eds.), Liberalism at the Crossroads (Rowman & Littlefield, 1994).
Abstract (from The Review of Politics): In The Morality of Freedom, Joseph Raz has challenged the anti-perfectionism of orthodox liberal political theory and proposed an alternative form of… More

Natural Law

– Harvard Law Review 31:1 (2007).
Excerpt: Oliver Wendell Holmes, the legal philosopher and judge whom Richard Posner has, with admiration, dubbed “the American Nietzsche,” established in the minds of many people a… More

Natural Law

– In Keith Whittington, R. Daniel Kelemen, and Gregory A. Caldeira (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Law and Politics (Oxford University Press, 2008).
Abstract: Theories of natural law propose to identify fundamental aspects of human well-being and fulfillment (“basic human goods”), and norms of conduct entailed by their integral… More

What is Marriage?

– Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 34:1 (Winter, 2010), with Sherif Girgis and Ryan T. Anderson.
What is marriage? Consider two competing views: Conjugal View: Marriage is the union of a man and a woman who make a permanent and exclusive commitment to each other of the type that is… More

Natural Law, God, and Human Dignity

– Gospel and Culture Lecture at the Center for Faith & Work, March 20, 2011, YouTube.
Natural law theorists believe that since all humans are made in the image of God, every person possesses irreducible capacities for rationality, freedom, and moral discernment. Natural law… More

Natural Law

– In the International Encyclopedia of Ethics (John Wiley and Sons, 2013), with Christopher Tollefsen.
Abstract: Natural law ethics forms a distinctive family of ethical theories, all of which take the human good, or human well-being, as central to their theoretical approach. After a period… More

Reason, Morality, and Law: The Philosophy of John Finnis

– With John Keown, eds. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Description from Publisher: John Finnis is a pioneer in the development of a new yet classically-grounded theory of natural law. His work offers a systematic philosophy of practical… More

What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense

– The Wheatley Institution, April 10, 2013, YouTube.
Lecture entitled, “What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense” given by Sherif Girgis, Ryan Anderson, and Robert George at The Wheatley Institution on April 10, 2013.

A Second Look at First Things: A Case for Conservative Politics

– With F. Beckwith and S. McWilliams, eds., St. Augustine’s Press, 2013.
Excerpt: The conservative movement in America seems to have fallen on hard times. Even though conservative talk radio is at its height, and President Obama had to shift to the political… More

Liberty and Conscience

– National Affairs, Fall 2013.
One of the more dubious achievements of the Obama administration has been to put religious freedom and the rights of conscience back on the agenda in American politics. Most notoriously,… More

C-SPAN Appearances

– C-SPAN.
Follow the link to all of Robert George’s video lectures and discussions of religious freedom, U.S. foreign policy, immigration, the Constitution and more.

Multimedia

Recent Criticism of Natural Law Theory

– University of Chicago Law Review 55:4 (Fall, 1988). Reprinted in Tom Campbell (ed.), International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory (Dartmouth Publishing Co. and NYU Press, 1991).

Judges and Natural Law

– Washington Post, August 12, 1991.
Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas has expressed a belief in natural law and natural rights. In the overheated, brightly lit arena of Supreme Court politics, that simple allegiance has… More

Natural Law and Human Nature

– In Robert P. George (ed.), Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays (Oxford University Press, 1992). Reprinted in Spanish translation in Anuario de Filosofia Juridica y Social 20 (2000).

Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays

– Oxford University Press, 1992.
Description from Publisher: Natural law theory is enjoying a revival of interest in a variety of scholarly disciplines including law, philosophy, political science, and theology and… More

The New Natural Law Theory: A Reply to Jean Porter

– American Journal of Jurisprudence 39 (1994), with Gerard Bradley.
The theory of practical reasoning and morality proposed by Germain Grisez, and developed by him in frequent collaboration with John Finnis and Joseph Boyle, is the most formidable… More

Natural Law, Liberalism, and Morality

– Oxford University Press, 1996.
Description from Publisher: This work brings together leading defenders of Natural Law and Liberalism for a series of frank and lively exchanges touching upon critical issues of… More

Natural Law and International Order

– In Terry Nardin (ed.), The Constitution of International Society (Princeton University Press, 1996). Reprinted in Kenneth Grasso, et al. (eds.), Catholicism, Liberalism, and Communitarianism (Rowman and Littlefield, 1995).

The Autonomy of Law: Essays on Legal Positivism

– Oxford University Press, 1996.
Description from Publisher: This collection of original essays from distinguished legal philosophers offers a challenging assessment of the nature and viability of legal positivism, an… More

Natural Law and Positive Law

– In Robert P. George (ed.), The Autonomy of Law:  Essays on Legal Positivism (Oxford University Press, 1996). Reprinted in David McLean (ed.), Common Truths:  New Perspectives on the Natural Law (ISI Books, 1999); in Aileen Kavanagh and John Oberdiek, Arguing about Law (Routledge, 2009); and in Spanish translation in Persona y Derecho 39 (1998).

Natural Law Ethics

– In Philip L. Quinn and Charles Taliaferro (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Religion (Blackwell Publishers, 1996).
Natural law is the body of moral norms and other practical principles which provide reasons (including moral reasons) for action and restraint. The most basic precepts of natural law direct… More

The Tyrant State

– First Things, November 1996. Reprinted in Mitchell S. Muncy (ed.), The End of Democracy? The Judicial Usurpation of Politics (Spence Publishing, 1997).
America’s democratic experiment has been remarkably successful. Constitutional democracy in the United States has survived a civil war, a great depression, and two world wars. Our nation… More

Natural Law and Liberal Public Reason

– American Journal of Jurisprudence 42:1 (January 1997), with Christopher Wolfe.
As the century winds to a close, John Rawls remains a–perhaps the–central figure in Anglo-American political philosophy. In his 1993 book, Political Liberalism, Rawls… More

Kelsen and Aquinas on “The Natural Law Doctrine”

– In Georges Mazur (ed.), Hans Kelsen: A Twenty-Five Year Commemoration (Semenenko Foundation, 1999). Reprinted in Notre Dame Law Review 75:5 (August 2000); John Goyette, Mark S. Latkovic, and Richard S. Myers (eds.), St. Thomas Aquinas and the Natural Law Tradition (Catholic University of America Press, 2004). Reprinted in Spanish translation (“El Tribunal de la Teoria Pura”) in Persona y Derecho, Vol. “Cambio Social y Transicion Juridica” (2000).
The fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Hans Kelsen’s influential essay, The Natural-Law Doctrine Before the Tribunal of Science, provides an occasion to revisit a work in… More

In Defense of Natural Law

– Oxford University Press, 1999.
Description from Publisher: In Making Men Moral, his 1995 book, George questioned the central doctrines of liberal jurisprudence and political theory. In his new work he extends his… More

One Hundred Years of Legal Philosophy

– Notre Dame Law Review 74:5 (1999). Reprinted in Brian J. Shanley (ed.), One Hundred Years of Philosophy (Catholic University of America Press, 2001), and as “What is Law? A Century of Arguments,” in First Things 112 (April 2001).
There is a sense in which twentieth century legal philosophy began on January 8, 1897. On that day, Oliver Wendell Holmes, then a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts,… More

A Clash of Orthodoxies

– First Things, August 1999.
A few years ago, the eminent Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington published in Foreign Affairs a widely noted article called “The Clash of Civilizations.” Looking at… More

Natural Law and Public Reason

– In Robert P. George and Christopher Wolfe (eds.), Natural Law and Public Reason (Georgetown University Press, 2000), with Christopher Wolfe.
Stephen Macedo, in his Liberal Virtues and in a number of separately published articles, has defended a liberal doctrine of public reason, one which he considers to be in line with John… More

Natural Law and Public Reason

– With Christopher Wolfe, eds. Georgetown University Press, 2000.
Description from Publisher: “Public reason” is one of the central concepts in modern liberal political theory. As articulated by John Rawls, it presents a way to overcome the… More

Reason, Freedom, and the Rule of Law

– American Journal of Jurisprudence 46 (2001). Reprinted in the American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Philosophy and Law 1:1 (Fall 2001), Regent University Law Review 15:2 (2002-2003), Charles W. Dunn (ed.), Faith, Freedom, and the Future:  Religion in American Political Culture (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), The Clarion Review 2 (2004), and Michael  A. Scaperlanda and Teresa Stanton Collet (eds.), Recovering Self-Evident Truths:  Catholic Perspectives on American Law (Catholic University of America Press, 2007).
The idea of law and the ideal of the rule of law are central to the natural law tradition of thought about public (or “political”) order. St. Thomas Aquinas went so far as to… More

The Natural Law Due Process Philosophy

– Fordham Law Review 69:6 (2001). Reprinted in T. Campbell (ed.), International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, 2nd Series (Dartmouth Publishing Co. and Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2003).
I am grateful to Joseph Koterski and James Fleming for their comments on my paper. Father Koterski and I agree more than we disagree. Things are the other way with Professor Fleming, so I… More

Natural Law and the Constitution Revisited

– Fordham Law Review 70:2 (2001).
James Fleming says that I have misinterpreted him on several points. My essay, Fleming’s critique, and my reply to his critique’ are now before the reader. Happily, anyone who… More

Oliver Wendell Holmes on Natural Law

– Villanova Law Review 48:1 (2002). Reprinted in Regent University Law Review 15:2 (Spring 2002-2003); The Good Society 12:3 (2003); and Jean DeGroot (ed.), Nature in American Philosophy (Catholic University of America Press, 2004).
My dear Laski, Your remark about the “oughts” and system of values in political science leaves me rather cold. If, as I think, the values are simply generalizations emotionally… More

Conservative Heavyweight

– Anne Morse, Crisis Magazine, September 1, 2003.
Excerpt: Professor Robert P. George is pacing around a Princeton auditorium before 200-plus undergraduates, preparing to wage an intellectual shock-and-awe campaign against illogical… More

Heretic in the Temple

– J. I. Merritt, Princeton Alumni Weekly, October 8, 2003.
Excerpt: The lecturer in Politics 315 – Constitutional Interpretation, or “Coninterp,” as generations of students have called it – came to class, as usual, wearing a dark… More

The Unorthodox Liberalism of Joseph Raz

– Revised and expanded in Christopher Wolfe (ed.), Liberalism at the Crossroads, 2nd Edition (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003). Original version published in The Review of Politics 53:4 (Fall 1991). Reprinted in Christopher Wolfe and John Hittinger (eds.), Liberalism at the Crossroads (Rowman & Littlefield, 1994).
Abstract (from The Review of Politics): In The Morality of Freedom, Joseph Raz has challenged the anti-perfectionism of orthodox liberal political theory and proposed an alternative form of… More

Natural Law

– Harvard Law Review 31:1 (2007).
Excerpt: Oliver Wendell Holmes, the legal philosopher and judge whom Richard Posner has, with admiration, dubbed “the American Nietzsche,” established in the minds of many people a… More

Natural Law

– In Keith Whittington, R. Daniel Kelemen, and Gregory A. Caldeira (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Law and Politics (Oxford University Press, 2008).
Abstract: Theories of natural law propose to identify fundamental aspects of human well-being and fulfillment (“basic human goods”), and norms of conduct entailed by their integral… More

What is Marriage?

– Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 34:1 (Winter, 2010), with Sherif Girgis and Ryan T. Anderson.
What is marriage? Consider two competing views: Conjugal View: Marriage is the union of a man and a woman who make a permanent and exclusive commitment to each other of the type that is… More

Natural Law, God, and Human Dignity

– Gospel and Culture Lecture at the Center for Faith & Work, March 20, 2011, YouTube.
Natural law theorists believe that since all humans are made in the image of God, every person possesses irreducible capacities for rationality, freedom, and moral discernment. Natural law… More

Natural Law

– In the International Encyclopedia of Ethics (John Wiley and Sons, 2013), with Christopher Tollefsen.
Abstract: Natural law ethics forms a distinctive family of ethical theories, all of which take the human good, or human well-being, as central to their theoretical approach. After a period… More

Reason, Morality, and Law: The Philosophy of John Finnis

– With John Keown, eds. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Description from Publisher: John Finnis is a pioneer in the development of a new yet classically-grounded theory of natural law. His work offers a systematic philosophy of practical… More

What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense

– The Wheatley Institution, April 10, 2013, YouTube.
Lecture entitled, “What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense” given by Sherif Girgis, Ryan Anderson, and Robert George at The Wheatley Institution on April 10, 2013.

A Second Look at First Things: A Case for Conservative Politics

– With F. Beckwith and S. McWilliams, eds., St. Augustine’s Press, 2013.
Excerpt: The conservative movement in America seems to have fallen on hard times. Even though conservative talk radio is at its height, and President Obama had to shift to the political… More

Liberty and Conscience

– National Affairs, Fall 2013.
One of the more dubious achievements of the Obama administration has been to put religious freedom and the rights of conscience back on the agenda in American politics. Most notoriously,… More

C-SPAN Appearances

– C-SPAN.
Follow the link to all of Robert George’s video lectures and discussions of religious freedom, U.S. foreign policy, immigration, the Constitution and more.

Teaching

Recent Criticism of Natural Law Theory

– University of Chicago Law Review 55:4 (Fall, 1988). Reprinted in Tom Campbell (ed.), International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory (Dartmouth Publishing Co. and NYU Press, 1991).

Judges and Natural Law

– Washington Post, August 12, 1991.
Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas has expressed a belief in natural law and natural rights. In the overheated, brightly lit arena of Supreme Court politics, that simple allegiance has… More

Natural Law and Human Nature

– In Robert P. George (ed.), Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays (Oxford University Press, 1992). Reprinted in Spanish translation in Anuario de Filosofia Juridica y Social 20 (2000).

Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays

– Oxford University Press, 1992.
Description from Publisher: Natural law theory is enjoying a revival of interest in a variety of scholarly disciplines including law, philosophy, political science, and theology and… More

The New Natural Law Theory: A Reply to Jean Porter

– American Journal of Jurisprudence 39 (1994), with Gerard Bradley.
The theory of practical reasoning and morality proposed by Germain Grisez, and developed by him in frequent collaboration with John Finnis and Joseph Boyle, is the most formidable… More

Natural Law, Liberalism, and Morality

– Oxford University Press, 1996.
Description from Publisher: This work brings together leading defenders of Natural Law and Liberalism for a series of frank and lively exchanges touching upon critical issues of… More

Natural Law and International Order

– In Terry Nardin (ed.), The Constitution of International Society (Princeton University Press, 1996). Reprinted in Kenneth Grasso, et al. (eds.), Catholicism, Liberalism, and Communitarianism (Rowman and Littlefield, 1995).

The Autonomy of Law: Essays on Legal Positivism

– Oxford University Press, 1996.
Description from Publisher: This collection of original essays from distinguished legal philosophers offers a challenging assessment of the nature and viability of legal positivism, an… More

Natural Law and Positive Law

– In Robert P. George (ed.), The Autonomy of Law:  Essays on Legal Positivism (Oxford University Press, 1996). Reprinted in David McLean (ed.), Common Truths:  New Perspectives on the Natural Law (ISI Books, 1999); in Aileen Kavanagh and John Oberdiek, Arguing about Law (Routledge, 2009); and in Spanish translation in Persona y Derecho 39 (1998).

Natural Law Ethics

– In Philip L. Quinn and Charles Taliaferro (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Religion (Blackwell Publishers, 1996).
Natural law is the body of moral norms and other practical principles which provide reasons (including moral reasons) for action and restraint. The most basic precepts of natural law direct… More

The Tyrant State

– First Things, November 1996. Reprinted in Mitchell S. Muncy (ed.), The End of Democracy? The Judicial Usurpation of Politics (Spence Publishing, 1997).
America’s democratic experiment has been remarkably successful. Constitutional democracy in the United States has survived a civil war, a great depression, and two world wars. Our nation… More

Natural Law and Liberal Public Reason

– American Journal of Jurisprudence 42:1 (January 1997), with Christopher Wolfe.
As the century winds to a close, John Rawls remains a–perhaps the–central figure in Anglo-American political philosophy. In his 1993 book, Political Liberalism, Rawls… More

Kelsen and Aquinas on “The Natural Law Doctrine”

– In Georges Mazur (ed.), Hans Kelsen: A Twenty-Five Year Commemoration (Semenenko Foundation, 1999). Reprinted in Notre Dame Law Review 75:5 (August 2000); John Goyette, Mark S. Latkovic, and Richard S. Myers (eds.), St. Thomas Aquinas and the Natural Law Tradition (Catholic University of America Press, 2004). Reprinted in Spanish translation (“El Tribunal de la Teoria Pura”) in Persona y Derecho, Vol. “Cambio Social y Transicion Juridica” (2000).
The fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Hans Kelsen’s influential essay, The Natural-Law Doctrine Before the Tribunal of Science, provides an occasion to revisit a work in… More

In Defense of Natural Law

– Oxford University Press, 1999.
Description from Publisher: In Making Men Moral, his 1995 book, George questioned the central doctrines of liberal jurisprudence and political theory. In his new work he extends his… More

One Hundred Years of Legal Philosophy

– Notre Dame Law Review 74:5 (1999). Reprinted in Brian J. Shanley (ed.), One Hundred Years of Philosophy (Catholic University of America Press, 2001), and as “What is Law? A Century of Arguments,” in First Things 112 (April 2001).
There is a sense in which twentieth century legal philosophy began on January 8, 1897. On that day, Oliver Wendell Holmes, then a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts,… More

A Clash of Orthodoxies

– First Things, August 1999.
A few years ago, the eminent Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington published in Foreign Affairs a widely noted article called “The Clash of Civilizations.” Looking at… More

Natural Law and Public Reason

– In Robert P. George and Christopher Wolfe (eds.), Natural Law and Public Reason (Georgetown University Press, 2000), with Christopher Wolfe.
Stephen Macedo, in his Liberal Virtues and in a number of separately published articles, has defended a liberal doctrine of public reason, one which he considers to be in line with John… More

Natural Law and Public Reason

– With Christopher Wolfe, eds. Georgetown University Press, 2000.
Description from Publisher: “Public reason” is one of the central concepts in modern liberal political theory. As articulated by John Rawls, it presents a way to overcome the… More

Reason, Freedom, and the Rule of Law

– American Journal of Jurisprudence 46 (2001). Reprinted in the American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Philosophy and Law 1:1 (Fall 2001), Regent University Law Review 15:2 (2002-2003), Charles W. Dunn (ed.), Faith, Freedom, and the Future:  Religion in American Political Culture (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), The Clarion Review 2 (2004), and Michael  A. Scaperlanda and Teresa Stanton Collet (eds.), Recovering Self-Evident Truths:  Catholic Perspectives on American Law (Catholic University of America Press, 2007).
The idea of law and the ideal of the rule of law are central to the natural law tradition of thought about public (or “political”) order. St. Thomas Aquinas went so far as to… More

The Natural Law Due Process Philosophy

– Fordham Law Review 69:6 (2001). Reprinted in T. Campbell (ed.), International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, 2nd Series (Dartmouth Publishing Co. and Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2003).
I am grateful to Joseph Koterski and James Fleming for their comments on my paper. Father Koterski and I agree more than we disagree. Things are the other way with Professor Fleming, so I… More

Natural Law and the Constitution Revisited

– Fordham Law Review 70:2 (2001).
James Fleming says that I have misinterpreted him on several points. My essay, Fleming’s critique, and my reply to his critique’ are now before the reader. Happily, anyone who… More

Oliver Wendell Holmes on Natural Law

– Villanova Law Review 48:1 (2002). Reprinted in Regent University Law Review 15:2 (Spring 2002-2003); The Good Society 12:3 (2003); and Jean DeGroot (ed.), Nature in American Philosophy (Catholic University of America Press, 2004).
My dear Laski, Your remark about the “oughts” and system of values in political science leaves me rather cold. If, as I think, the values are simply generalizations emotionally… More

Conservative Heavyweight

– Anne Morse, Crisis Magazine, September 1, 2003.
Excerpt: Professor Robert P. George is pacing around a Princeton auditorium before 200-plus undergraduates, preparing to wage an intellectual shock-and-awe campaign against illogical… More

Heretic in the Temple

– J. I. Merritt, Princeton Alumni Weekly, October 8, 2003.
Excerpt: The lecturer in Politics 315 – Constitutional Interpretation, or “Coninterp,” as generations of students have called it – came to class, as usual, wearing a dark… More

The Unorthodox Liberalism of Joseph Raz

– Revised and expanded in Christopher Wolfe (ed.), Liberalism at the Crossroads, 2nd Edition (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003). Original version published in The Review of Politics 53:4 (Fall 1991). Reprinted in Christopher Wolfe and John Hittinger (eds.), Liberalism at the Crossroads (Rowman & Littlefield, 1994).
Abstract (from The Review of Politics): In The Morality of Freedom, Joseph Raz has challenged the anti-perfectionism of orthodox liberal political theory and proposed an alternative form of… More

Natural Law

– Harvard Law Review 31:1 (2007).
Excerpt: Oliver Wendell Holmes, the legal philosopher and judge whom Richard Posner has, with admiration, dubbed “the American Nietzsche,” established in the minds of many people a… More

Natural Law

– In Keith Whittington, R. Daniel Kelemen, and Gregory A. Caldeira (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Law and Politics (Oxford University Press, 2008).
Abstract: Theories of natural law propose to identify fundamental aspects of human well-being and fulfillment (“basic human goods”), and norms of conduct entailed by their integral… More

What is Marriage?

– Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 34:1 (Winter, 2010), with Sherif Girgis and Ryan T. Anderson.
What is marriage? Consider two competing views: Conjugal View: Marriage is the union of a man and a woman who make a permanent and exclusive commitment to each other of the type that is… More

Natural Law, God, and Human Dignity

– Gospel and Culture Lecture at the Center for Faith & Work, March 20, 2011, YouTube.
Natural law theorists believe that since all humans are made in the image of God, every person possesses irreducible capacities for rationality, freedom, and moral discernment. Natural law… More

Natural Law

– In the International Encyclopedia of Ethics (John Wiley and Sons, 2013), with Christopher Tollefsen.
Abstract: Natural law ethics forms a distinctive family of ethical theories, all of which take the human good, or human well-being, as central to their theoretical approach. After a period… More

Reason, Morality, and Law: The Philosophy of John Finnis

– With John Keown, eds. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Description from Publisher: John Finnis is a pioneer in the development of a new yet classically-grounded theory of natural law. His work offers a systematic philosophy of practical… More

What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense

– The Wheatley Institution, April 10, 2013, YouTube.
Lecture entitled, “What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense” given by Sherif Girgis, Ryan Anderson, and Robert George at The Wheatley Institution on April 10, 2013.

A Second Look at First Things: A Case for Conservative Politics

– With F. Beckwith and S. McWilliams, eds., St. Augustine’s Press, 2013.
Excerpt: The conservative movement in America seems to have fallen on hard times. Even though conservative talk radio is at its height, and President Obama had to shift to the political… More

Liberty and Conscience

– National Affairs, Fall 2013.
One of the more dubious achievements of the Obama administration has been to put religious freedom and the rights of conscience back on the agenda in American politics. Most notoriously,… More

C-SPAN Appearances

– C-SPAN.
Follow the link to all of Robert George’s video lectures and discussions of religious freedom, U.S. foreign policy, immigration, the Constitution and more.