Sean Coyle - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Sean Coyle
The Northern Ireland legal quarterly, Aug 10, 2020
political thought might be presented as a tension between two competing ideals: first, the notion... more political thought might be presented as a tension between two competing ideals: first, the notion of a community as a form of moral association which establishes and protects individuals' interests through representative politics and collective mechanisms of enforcement (which I shall refer to as 'idealism'); and, second, the idea of society as a dog-eat-dog world in which the private pursuit of wealth and happiness is constrained by rules and standards operating for the benefit of all (which I shall call 'positivism'). The notion of a right is central to both of these ideals, and it is plausible to see theories of rights as offering differing understandings of the significance of the modern polity's attachment to liberal values. The notion of a 'right' is of enormous significance for the liberal polity. Modern jurisprudential thought distinguishes two rival theories of rights, known as the Will theory and the Interest theory. My aim in this essay is to defend the Will theory of rights. Jurisprudential theories of rights are often presented as analytical attempts to clarify the essential nature of legal rights. The present essay represents a departure from this tradition: it is my aim to suggest that, far from constituting a dispute about the proper analysis of a concept, the Will and Interest theories represent fundamental yet conflicting ideologies which each throw differing light on our form of political association. "[T]here is one kind of good that is so called in an absolute sense, and there is another that is good from the standpoint of a particular individual. Indeed, to borrow Aristotle's admirable explanation, 'Whatever each person's understanding has ruled for him regarding a given matter, that to him is good.' For God created Man . . . 'free and sui iuris', so that the actions of each individual and the use of his possessions were made subject not to another's will, but to his own . . . For what is that wellknown concept 'natural liberty' other the power of an individual to act in accordance with his own will?" 1 This passage of early modern political theory, and others like it, represents a crossroads in political thought. Having shaken off medieval assumptions concerning the association of the divine with the mundane, the idea began to take shape in the writings of Grotius and his contemporaries, that a form of life might be related to general ideas of natural law through the development of customary principles and forms of action which arise in response to ______________________________________________________________ * I would like to thank Matthew Kramer, George Letsas and Amanda Perreau-Saussine for their helpful comments and suggestions, as well as participants at a seminar in Queen's University Belfast where some of the arguments herein were presented. 1 Grotius, De Iure Praedae Commentarius [1604] (Oxford, Clarendon Press 1950), 18.
Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, 2020
From Positivism to Idealism, 2017
Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, Mar 13, 2020
Social & Legal Studies, 2020
Environmental Law Review, 2010
Jurisprudence or Legal Science? : A Debate about the Nature of Legal Theory
Choice Reviews Online, 2015
1. Justice, Law and History PART ONE: FOUNDATIONS 2. Origins of the Western Jurisprudential Tradi... more 1. Justice, Law and History PART ONE: FOUNDATIONS 2. Origins of the Western Jurisprudential Tradition 3. The Emergence of 'Modern' Political Thought 4. Images of Law from Grotius to Kant PART TWO: DEBATES 5. Positive Law, Positive Justice: Hart 6. Justice in the 'Real World': Dworkin 7. Justice and the Liberal State: Rawls 8. Justice and the Common Good: Finnis 9. Justice and Legality: Fuller 10. Justice and Legal Order: Further Reflections 11. Conclusions?
Jotwell the Journal of Things We Like, Dec 20, 2013
The image of natural law to the modern mind is one in which certain actions, states-of-affairs, a... more The image of natural law to the modern mind is one in which certain actions, states-of-affairs, and “values,” are represented as being right or wrong, reasonable or unreasonable, depending upon whether they can claim to be in accord with or contrary to nature. Though apparently hard to shift, this image, as John Finnis and others have pointed out on numerous occasions, is misconceived: the orientation of thinking running rather from what is reasonable and right to what is (therefore) in accord with nature.
Jotwell the Journal of Things We Like, Nov 30, 2011
Thought, Law, Rights and Action in the Age of Environmental Crisis
Dimensions of Politics and English Jurisprudence, 2013
Dimensions of Politics and English Jurisprudence, 2013
Understandings of law and politics are intrinsically bound up with broader visions of the human c... more Understandings of law and politics are intrinsically bound up with broader visions of the human condition. Sean Coyle argues for a renewed engagement with the juridical and political philosophies of the Western intellectual tradition, and takes up questions pondered by Aristotle, Plato, Augustine, Aquinas and Hobbes in seeking a deeper understanding of law, politics, freedom, justice and order. Criticising modern theories for their failure to engage with fundamental questions, he explores the profound connections between justice and order and raises the neglected question of whether human beings in all their imperfection can ever achieve truly just order in this life. Above all, he confronts the question of whether the open society is the natural home of liberals who have given up faith in human progress (there are no ideal societies), or whether liberal political order is itself the ideal society?
Ratio Juris, 2002
A recent series of papers, sparked off by a note by Robert Walter (1996), has rekindled the debat... more A recent series of papers, sparked off by a note by Robert Walter (1996), has rekindled the debate over the possibility of creating a logic of normative concepts. The debate correctly centres on ways in which Jørgensen’s dilemma might be resolved (Jørgensen 1937–8), since a means of resolving that dilemma is the only apparently available way in which to establish that a logic of norms is possible. Two separate questions require answers: (i) what is the correct way in which to regard Jørgensen’s dilemma; and (ii) how should one face that dilemma? I shall argue that traditional responses to the first question are inadequate, and I shall then try to expose as flawed two recent attempts to resolve the dilemma. Finally, I shall relate my conclusions in the earlier part of the paper to the wider question of whether a logic of normative concepts is, after all, a possibility.
The Northern Ireland legal quarterly, Aug 10, 2020
political thought might be presented as a tension between two competing ideals: first, the notion... more political thought might be presented as a tension between two competing ideals: first, the notion of a community as a form of moral association which establishes and protects individuals' interests through representative politics and collective mechanisms of enforcement (which I shall refer to as 'idealism'); and, second, the idea of society as a dog-eat-dog world in which the private pursuit of wealth and happiness is constrained by rules and standards operating for the benefit of all (which I shall call 'positivism'). The notion of a right is central to both of these ideals, and it is plausible to see theories of rights as offering differing understandings of the significance of the modern polity's attachment to liberal values. The notion of a 'right' is of enormous significance for the liberal polity. Modern jurisprudential thought distinguishes two rival theories of rights, known as the Will theory and the Interest theory. My aim in this essay is to defend the Will theory of rights. Jurisprudential theories of rights are often presented as analytical attempts to clarify the essential nature of legal rights. The present essay represents a departure from this tradition: it is my aim to suggest that, far from constituting a dispute about the proper analysis of a concept, the Will and Interest theories represent fundamental yet conflicting ideologies which each throw differing light on our form of political association. "[T]here is one kind of good that is so called in an absolute sense, and there is another that is good from the standpoint of a particular individual. Indeed, to borrow Aristotle's admirable explanation, 'Whatever each person's understanding has ruled for him regarding a given matter, that to him is good.' For God created Man . . . 'free and sui iuris', so that the actions of each individual and the use of his possessions were made subject not to another's will, but to his own . . . For what is that wellknown concept 'natural liberty' other the power of an individual to act in accordance with his own will?" 1 This passage of early modern political theory, and others like it, represents a crossroads in political thought. Having shaken off medieval assumptions concerning the association of the divine with the mundane, the idea began to take shape in the writings of Grotius and his contemporaries, that a form of life might be related to general ideas of natural law through the development of customary principles and forms of action which arise in response to ______________________________________________________________ * I would like to thank Matthew Kramer, George Letsas and Amanda Perreau-Saussine for their helpful comments and suggestions, as well as participants at a seminar in Queen's University Belfast where some of the arguments herein were presented. 1 Grotius, De Iure Praedae Commentarius [1604] (Oxford, Clarendon Press 1950), 18.
Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, 2020
From Positivism to Idealism, 2017
Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, Mar 13, 2020
Social & Legal Studies, 2020
Environmental Law Review, 2010
Jurisprudence or Legal Science? : A Debate about the Nature of Legal Theory
Choice Reviews Online, 2015
1. Justice, Law and History PART ONE: FOUNDATIONS 2. Origins of the Western Jurisprudential Tradi... more 1. Justice, Law and History PART ONE: FOUNDATIONS 2. Origins of the Western Jurisprudential Tradition 3. The Emergence of 'Modern' Political Thought 4. Images of Law from Grotius to Kant PART TWO: DEBATES 5. Positive Law, Positive Justice: Hart 6. Justice in the 'Real World': Dworkin 7. Justice and the Liberal State: Rawls 8. Justice and the Common Good: Finnis 9. Justice and Legality: Fuller 10. Justice and Legal Order: Further Reflections 11. Conclusions?
Jotwell the Journal of Things We Like, Dec 20, 2013
The image of natural law to the modern mind is one in which certain actions, states-of-affairs, a... more The image of natural law to the modern mind is one in which certain actions, states-of-affairs, and “values,” are represented as being right or wrong, reasonable or unreasonable, depending upon whether they can claim to be in accord with or contrary to nature. Though apparently hard to shift, this image, as John Finnis and others have pointed out on numerous occasions, is misconceived: the orientation of thinking running rather from what is reasonable and right to what is (therefore) in accord with nature.
Jotwell the Journal of Things We Like, Nov 30, 2011
Thought, Law, Rights and Action in the Age of Environmental Crisis
Dimensions of Politics and English Jurisprudence, 2013
Dimensions of Politics and English Jurisprudence, 2013
Understandings of law and politics are intrinsically bound up with broader visions of the human c... more Understandings of law and politics are intrinsically bound up with broader visions of the human condition. Sean Coyle argues for a renewed engagement with the juridical and political philosophies of the Western intellectual tradition, and takes up questions pondered by Aristotle, Plato, Augustine, Aquinas and Hobbes in seeking a deeper understanding of law, politics, freedom, justice and order. Criticising modern theories for their failure to engage with fundamental questions, he explores the profound connections between justice and order and raises the neglected question of whether human beings in all their imperfection can ever achieve truly just order in this life. Above all, he confronts the question of whether the open society is the natural home of liberals who have given up faith in human progress (there are no ideal societies), or whether liberal political order is itself the ideal society?
Ratio Juris, 2002
A recent series of papers, sparked off by a note by Robert Walter (1996), has rekindled the debat... more A recent series of papers, sparked off by a note by Robert Walter (1996), has rekindled the debate over the possibility of creating a logic of normative concepts. The debate correctly centres on ways in which Jørgensen’s dilemma might be resolved (Jørgensen 1937–8), since a means of resolving that dilemma is the only apparently available way in which to establish that a logic of norms is possible. Two separate questions require answers: (i) what is the correct way in which to regard Jørgensen’s dilemma; and (ii) how should one face that dilemma? I shall argue that traditional responses to the first question are inadequate, and I shall then try to expose as flawed two recent attempts to resolve the dilemma. Finally, I shall relate my conclusions in the earlier part of the paper to the wider question of whether a logic of normative concepts is, after all, a possibility.