John Finnis | |
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.jpg) Finnis on After Dark, 1987 | |
| Born | John Mitchell Finnis 28 July 1940 |
| Education | University of Adelaide (LLB) University College, Oxford (DPhil) |
| Notable work | Natural Law and Natural Rights (1980, 2011) |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Thomism Natural law theory |
| Institutions | University of Oxford |
| Thesis | The Idea of Judicial Power, with Special Reference to Australian Law (1965) |
| Doctoral advisor | H. L. A. Hart |
| Doctoral students | Neil Gorsuch[1] Robert P. George |
Main interests | Philosophy of law Political theory Philosophy of religion |
Notable ideas | Criticism of legal positivism |
| This article is part of a series on |
| Conservatism in Australia |
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John Mitchell Finnis AC CBE KC (Hon) FBA (born 28 July 1940) is an Australian legal philosopher and jurist specializing in jurisprudence and the philosophy of law. He is an original interpreter of Aristotle and Aquinas, and counts Germain Grisez as a major influence and collaborator.[2] He has made contributions to epistemology, metaphysics, and moral philosophy.
Finnis was Professor of Law and Legal Philosophy at the University of Oxford from 1989 to 2010, where he is now Professor of Law and Legal Philosophy Emeritus. He is also the Biolchini Family Professor of Law, emeritus,[3] at Notre Dame Law School and a permanent senior distinguished research fellow at Notre Dame's de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture.[4] He acted as adviser to several Australian State governments, especially Queensland and Western Australia, mostly on the States' relations with the federal Government and with the United Kingdom.
His practice at the English Bar saw him in cases in the High Court and in the Court of Appeal. He is a member of Gray's Inn. He was appointed an honorary Queen's Counsel in 2017.[5] In the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours for Australia, Finnis was appointed a Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia, the country's highest civilian honour, for his eminent service as a jurist and legal scholar.[6] He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to legal scholarship.[7]
He has supervised several doctoral students including Neil Gorsuch, Justice Susan Kenny of the Federal Court of Australia, Robert P. George of Princeton University, and John Keown of Georgetown University. In 2013 George and Keown summarised some of Finnis's media work as "He has, for example, debated embryo research with Mary Warnock on BBC's Newsnight and with Jonathan Glover in the Channel 4 Debate; discussed euthanasia with a leading Dutch euthanasiast on the same channel's After Dark, and written on eugenic abortion in The Sunday Telegraph".[citation needed]
- ^ Gorsuch, Neil McGill (2004). The right to receive assistance in suicide and euthanasia, with particular reference to the law of the United States. ora.ox.ac.uk (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC 59196002. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.401384.
- ^ Among others, Objectivity and Content in Ethics, in Reason in Action.
- ^ "Faculty and students celebrate Professor John Finnis as he moves to emeritus status | the Law School | University of Notre Dame". 14 September 2020.
- ^ "Permanent Senior Distinguished Research Fellows // De Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture // University of Notre Dame".
- ^ "Lord Chancellor welcomes historic promotion of talent for new silks - Press releases - GOV.UK". gov.uk. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
- ^ "2019 Queen's Birthday Honours List" (PDF). The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia. 10 June 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 April 2021. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
- ^ "No. 63918". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2022. p. N9.
