Ethics: New Trajectories in Law

This book explores ethics at the intersection of law and justice, arguing that ethics can and should stand guard over any image of justice and/or just law. It characterizes ethical life in the law as the constant experience of the paradoxical nature of this choice, a feeling of inescapable personal responsibility for the fate of the Other.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 128 pages
Publication date: 01 August 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This comprehensive book delves into the intricate interplay between law and justice, exploring the realm of ethics. If law and justice strive to establish the overarching principles governing our collective existence as social beings on Earth, ethics revolves around the unique moral relationship each individual experiences with the Other. Law, as the offspring of politics, holds a position of legitimacy in the eyes of most people, at least in most instances. On the other hand, justice is tasked with vigilantly safeguarding law, protecting us from its biases and excesses, or, at the very least, raising a voice of reproach whenever law permits or encourages injustice.

However, what if the belief in a particular legally authorized state of affairs as just, a sentiment prevalent among the privileged, or even perceived as unjust and in need of correction, itself requires a vigilant guardian? This book makes a compelling argument that ethics should oversee and protect any image of justice and/or just law one may hold. It navigates a delicate path between two potential moral dangers: ethics being interpreted as the rational production of ethically correct behavior, akin to Kant's philosophy, and ethics being perceived as the spontaneous eruption of pre-rational compassion for the suffering of the Other, regardless of the consequences (as in Levinas's approach).

In the end, this book characterizes ethical life within the law as a continuous and paradoxical experience—a sense of unavoidable personal responsibility for the fate of the Other. Drawing on the author's extensive expertise in the field, this book will captivate students, scholars, and anyone with an interest in legal theory, moral and political philosophy.

Weight: 240g
Dimension: 216 x 138 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367694098