Lecturer is Garrett Barden is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at University College Cork in Ireland, Tuesday March 1st 2011
At 12.00 in M102 Sólborg v/Norðurslóð
The question about the rule of law appears very early in European philosophy of law. In this paper I suggest that there are four related but distinct subquestions of the general question. [1] The rule of law among non-human animals. This section takes up Ulpian's remark that 'the law of nature is that which nature teaches all animals (both non-human and human). [2] The application of the general rule to the particular case and the inadequacy of the general or universal rule. This section takes up Plato's discussion in The Statesman and Aristotle's in the Nicomachean Ethics. [3] The rule of law as the relationship of the judge to the jural context of the society in which the dispute arises. [4] The rule of law thought of as defense against the tyrannical rule of man. This section takes up the relationship between sovereignty and truth: is law simply what the ruler decides? See JustinianSed et quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem [Inst. I.II. 6] [That which seems good to the emperor has the force of law] and Goering Recht is das, was uns gefaellt ['Right is whatever pleases us'].
Garrett Barden is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at University College Cork in Ireland and a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Akureyri.
