JOHN FINNIS

>  Profile
>  Interviewer
>  Links
>  Select Publications
>  Academic Journeys
>  Faith & Scholarship
>  Scholarly Research
>  Academic Advice

Profile

Professor of Law and Legal Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Oxford, where he was a Tutorial Fellow of University College and a teaching member of the Faculty of Law from 1966 to 2010, and a member of the Sub-Faculty of Philosophy from 1987 to 2010. Since 1995 he has also been the Biolchini Family Professor of Law and adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. best known for his work on the philosophy of law and the development of what is often called the New Classical Natural Law Theory (NCNL), based on his book Natural Law and Natural Rights (Oxford: Oxford University, 1980; 2nd ed. rev., 2011) and his work with Germain Grisez.

Professor Finnis completed his DPhil at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar from South Australia. A member of the British Academy and the English Bar (Gray’s Inn), he has taught at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Adelaide, the University of Malawi, and Boston College. He has been served the Linacre (now the Anscombe) Centre for Health Care Ethics, the Catholic Bishops’ Joint Committee on Bioethical Issues, the International Theological Commission, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and the Pontifical Academy Pro Vita. He has also advised a number of Australian governments on federal-state and UK-Australia constitutional relations. 

Interviewer

Richard Ekins, Associate Professor of Law, University of Oxford.

Links

John Finnis, Notre Dame Law School

Select Publications

In 2011, Oxford University Press published a five-volume set Finnis’ collected essays on philosophy and theology:

·      Reason in Action: Collected Essays of John Finnis, vol. 1 (Oxford: Oxford University, 2011).

·      Intention and Identity: Collected Essays of John Finnis, vol. 2 (Oxford: Oxford University, 2011).

·      Human Rights and Common Good: Collected Essays of John Finnis, vol. 3 (Oxford: Oxford University, 2011).

·      Philosophy of Law: Collected Essays of John Finnis, vol. 4 (Oxford: Oxford University, 2011).

·      Religion and Public Reasons: Collected Essays of John Finnis, vol. 5 (Oxford: Oxford University, 2011).

Other major publications include

·      Natural Law and Natural Rights (Oxford: Oxford University, 1980; 2nd ed. rev., 2011

·      Aquinas: Moral, Political, and Legal Theory (Oxford: Oxford University, 1998).

·      Moral Absolutes: Tradition, Revision and Truth (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America, 1991)

·      Nuclear Deterrence, Morality and Realism, with Joseph Boyle and Germain Grisez (Oxford: Oxford University, 1987).

·      Fundamentals of Ethics (Oxford: Oxford University; Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1983);

On the work of John Finnis:

·      John Keown, Robert P. George, eds. Reason, Morality, and Law: The Philosophy of John Finnis (Oxford University Press, 2013).

Academic Journeys

Faith & Scholarship

Scholarly Research

Academic Advice