Physician Assistance in Dying: An Option for Christians?

Opposition to physician-assisted suicide is widespread in Christian ethics. However, on a topic as controversial as physician-assisted suicide, no one can reasonably speak for “the Christian” perspective. Natural-law and, specifically, just-war thinking are claimed in the Christian tradition, yet the natural-law contribution to a Christian ethical analysis of physician-assisted suicide requires explanation and defense. Natural-law ethical theory affirms the central role of reason in moral thinking and provides a theoretical resource in contemporary ethics to assist in analyzing specific moral issues, problems, and conflicts. This essay seeks to demonstrate how just-war thinking, derived from natural-law tradition, allows movement from the theoretical world of natural-law theory to the practical world of normative ethics. Here the case is made that the just-war model of ethics helps elucidate the moral problematic involved in physician-assisted suicide while clarifying direction on this particularly thorny and controversial problem.

Lucky Philip Dube: The Artiste in Search of a New Jurisprudence and Subaltern Redemption

Most musicians, in their songs, portray their philosophical vision of life as could be seen in the case of Lucky Philip Dube, the black South African reggae musician. His songs show that he adheres to the principle of ethical humanism and portrays him as a crusader of social justice. Thus, this essay shows the link between musical art and law by examining the commitment of Dube’s lyrical composition in fighting for a just legal system in his society. This essay therefore, analyses some of his lyrical productions in order to expound on the philosophical ideas underneath the songs and how they tie with the search of an alternative jurisprudence and humanism in postcolonial discourse and the liberation of the subaltern. From the perspective of natural law theory, this essay postulates that Dube’s songs criticise the injustice of the legal philosophy in his society and quest for an impartial jurisprudence – that of equality and justice in his society.

God, New Natural Law Theory, and Human Rights

Critics of the “New” Natural Law (NNL) theory have raised questions about the role of the divine in that theory. This paper considers that role in regard to its account of human rights: can the NNL account of human rights be sustained without a more or less explicit advertence to “the question of God’s existence or nature or will”? It might seem that Finnis’s “elaborate sketch” includes a full theory of human rights even prior to the introduction of his reflections on the divine in the concluding chapter of Natural Law and Natural Rights. But in this essay, I argue that an adequate account of human rights cannot, in fact, be sustained without some role for God’s creative activity in two dimensions, the ontological and the motivational. These dimensions must be distinguished from the epistemological dimension of human rights, that is, the question of whether epistemological access to truths about human rights is possible without reference to God’s existence, nature, or will. The NNL view is that such access is possible. However, I will argue, the epistemological cannot be entirely cabined off from the relevant ontological and motivational issues and the NNL framework can accommodate this fact without difficulty.

Radbruch’s Formula Revisited: The Lex Injusta Non Est Lex Maxim in Constitutional Democracies

According to German legal philosopher Gustav Radbruch, laws that are substantively unjust to an intolerable degree should not be regarded as legally valid, even if they were promulgated according to stipulated procedure. Radbruch’s Formula (as his position has been termed) contradicts the central tenet of legal positivism, according to which the existence of laws does not necessarily depend on their merit.1 While some legal positivists suppose that legal invalidity based on the content of particular laws is a central tenet of natural law theory,2 natural law theorists such as John Finnis opine that the lex injusta non est lex3 maxim has been no more than a subordinate theorem of classical natural law theory.4 In Finnis’s view, unjust laws give rise to legal obligation “in a legal sense.”5

Synthesizing Imaginations

Milton’s engagement with Selden’s natural law theory is a factor in the transformation that occurs between his earlier anti-prelatical tracts and the later treatises on divorce, freedom of the press, and the citizens’ right to depose any ruler. In his poetry, despite his Christian doctrinal preference, Milton’s non-hierarchical aesthetic attests to the amplitude of his vision. This derives in part from his exposure to Selden’s method of giving a fair hearing to all his pagan, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim sources. But the same passage in the Areopagitica that demonstrates Selden’s influence becomes, in the latter part of the chapter, a point of entry into the different ways that a scholar and a poet-polemicist view the same object. Selden recognizes the importance of mediated experience, whether scientifically, through a telescope, or religiously, through tradition. Milton distrusts “the glass of Galileo, less assured,” and believes only in sola scriptura and immediate experience.

THE POSITION OF MORAL VALUES IN LAW

Moral values in legal science are important. However, the flow of law sees a variety of moral values. This paper aims to see the position of moral values in the science of law. Legal positivism separates strictly between law and morals. According to him, there is no law other than the command of the authorities. Even extreme identifying the law (Recht) as the law (wet). Legal positivism activities are aimed at concrete problems, which are different when compared to natural law thinking which engages itself with the validation of man-made law. For adherents of natural law theory, an unjust law is not law. there is an absolute relationship between law and morality. the two cannot be separated, so the law must refer to moral principles.

The Notion of Divine Principle (Asas Ilahiah) in Indonesian Contract Law

This study is legal research aiming to find out the essence of Divine Principles in Indonesian Contract Law from the review of the Natural Law theory, the Sunt-Servanda theory, the Awareness and Legal Obedience Grundnorm theory, and Truth theory. This research reveals that the Divine Principle's essence is the most fundamental principle or guideline derived from God but exists in humans, aiming to find the truth and regulate the parties in making agreements. The application of the Divine Principle aims to find the truth and regulate the parties in the agreement's field. Indonesian citizens could realize and practice the Precepts of Godhead in their agreement activities. In establishing the agreement, the parties are applying the teachings of their respective religions. This study reveals that the Divine principle needs to be incorporated into one of the upcoming National Agreement Laws principles, especially in the contract born because of the agreement. This study maintains that the divine principle can be applied comprehensively for Indonesian citizens who are parties to the agreement, not only limited to the Indonesian Muslim citizens.