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Aquinas’s Theory of Conscience and Legal Reasoning

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Conscience and Love in Making Judicial Decisions

Part of the book series: Law and Philosophy Library ((LAPS,volume 54))

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Abstract

A typical definition of the concept of legal reasoning has been given by Neil McCormick. Legal reasoning for him “is the process of argumentation as a process of justification.”1 Bengoetxea who is influenced by MacCormick insists on the separation of moral and technically legal argumentation.2 Although legal argumentation can contain moral argumentation there is still an area of judicial decisions which is free from moral judgements. Therefore, legal reasoning does not necessarily involve moral arguments, and consequently, can be carried out without judgements of conscience. But the problem arises of whether, in the course of arriving at a legal decision, the judge’s resolution to disregard any moral reasons is already a sort of moral judgement?

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Law, Stavropol State University, Stavropol, Russia

    Alexander Nikolaevich Shytov (Senior Lecturer, Special Lecturer)

  2. Commercial Law and Ethics, Mae Jo University, Chiang Mai, Thailand

    Alexander Nikolaevich Shytov (Senior Lecturer, Special Lecturer)

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  1. Alexander Nikolaevich Shytov
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© 2001 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Shytov, A.N. (2001). Aquinas’s Theory of Conscience and Legal Reasoning. In: Conscience and Love in Making Judicial Decisions. Law and Philosophy Library, vol 54. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9745-6_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9745-6_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5889-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-015-9745-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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