Ethical Rationalism and the Law

What role does reason play in determining what, if anything, is morally right? What role does morality play in law? Perhaps the most controversial answer to these fundamental questions is that reason supports a supreme principle of both morality and legality. The contributors to this book cast a fresh critical eye over the coherence of modern approaches to ethical rationalism within law, and reflect on the intellectual history on which it builds. The contributors then take the debate beyond the traditional concerns of legal theory into areas such as the relationship between morality and international law, and the impact of ethically controversial medical innovations on legal understanding.

Shaun D Pattinson is Professor of Medical Law and Ethics at Durham University, UK. He was the founding Director of Durham CELLS (Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences), previously Deputy Chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, and a Leverhulme Major Research Fellow. His other books include Influencing Traits Before Birth, Medical Law and Ethics, Revising Landmark Cases in Medical Law, and a collection co-edited with Patrick Capps, Ethical Rationalism and the Law. Shaun is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.