N E Simmonds
Biographic Data
| ID | 614598 |
|---|---|
| NAME | N E Simmonds |
| GIVEN NAMES | N E |
| FAMILY NAME | Simmonds |
| SIGNATURE | SIMMONDS N E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Cambridge |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 10 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1985 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
On the Idea of Law
The idea of law is a focus imaginarius lying beyond the bounds of possible experience but nevertheless structuring that experience. The practices composing a legal order refer to the idea of law, and those references embody assumptions concerning law's nature. Yet, when we try to combine these various assumptions into a coherent understanding of the idea of law, we find them to be problematic. The resulting puzzles give rise to a philosophical de…
An Age of Rights
Rights seem to occupy a prominent place within the moral and political lexicon of modernity. But is this truly an age in which the idea of individual rights has flourished? Or might the frequency with which we speak of rights reflect a failure to appreciate the stringent demands that genuine rights would inevitably place upon us? Does our willingness to frame so many moral issues in terms of rights simply illustrate our failure to take the idea o…
The Logic of Planning and the Aim of the Law
In his recent book, Legality, Scott Shapiro argues that laws are plans. Very similar views have already been developed by Finnis. But Shapiro’s version does nothing to accommodate the status of a legal order as a form of association within which force may ordinarily be employed only against those who have violated the law. Shapiro seeks to reconcile his legal positivism with the thesis that law necessarily has a moral aim. But his argument for th…
Freedom, Law, and Naked Violence
The essay defends the thesis that law has an inherently moral aspect. To the extent that law governs, one enjoys a degree of freedom (understood as independence from the power of another) which could exist in no other way. The essay responds to Kramer's criticisms of this argument, presented in an earlier issue of the University of Toronto Law Journal. It is suggested that Kramer misrepresents the argument in several respects. Once his misreprese…
Law as a Moral Idea
The nature of law is best understood as the expression of a moral idea: the idea of freedom as independence from the power of another. The moral value of law is not contingent upon circumstance, but inherent in its character as law. In making these claims, the book seeks to move jurisprudence closer to an older tradition of philosophical reflection upon law, exemplified by Hobbes and Kant. Most contemporary legal theorists view the understanding …
Philosophy of Law
This chapter contains sections titled: Problems of Jurisprudence The Enterprise of Legal Theory From Positivism to Natural Law Theory as Interpretation Law as Integrity Unger and the Critical Legal Studies Movement Philosophical Reconstruction of Legal Doctrine
A Debate Over Rights
Judgment and Mercy
Journal Article Judgment and Mercy Get access N. E. SIMMONDS N. E. SIMMONDS *Fellow of Corpus Christi CollegeCambridge Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Volume 13, Issue 1, Spring 1993, Pages 52–68, https://doi.org/10.1093/ojls/13.1.52 Published: 01 March 1993
Between Positivism and Idealism
[W]hatsoever is the object of any man's appetite or desire, that is it which he for his part calleth good : and the object of his hate and aversion, evil; and of his contempt, vile and inconsiderable . For these words of good, evil, and contemptible, are ever used with relation to the person that useth them: there being nothing simply and absolutely so; nor any common rule of good and evil, to be taken from the nature of the objects themselves; b…
Pashukanis and Liberal Jurisprudence
makes it all too easy for the reader to skim through passages without noticing their inner complexity, and to miss the penetrating insights with which the text is studded. At the same time, Pashukanis's compressed style makes some re-construction his argument both necessary and difficult. In this paper I attempt to piece together an exposition those features the theory that I personally find interesting and that I feel have received less attentio…
Law as a Moral Idea
The nature of law is best understood as the expression of a moral idea: the idea of freedom as independence from the power of another. The moral value of law is not contingent upon circumstance, but inherent in its character as law. In making these claims, the book seeks to move jurisprudence closer to an older tradition of philosophical reflection upon law, exemplified by Hobbes and Kant. Most contemporary legal theorists view the understanding …
Judgment and Mercy
Journal Article Judgment and Mercy Get access N. E. SIMMONDS N. E. SIMMONDS *Fellow of Corpus Christi CollegeCambridge Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Volume 13, Issue 1, Spring 1993, Pages 52–68, https://doi.org/10.1093/ojls/13.1.52 Published: 01 March 1993
Pashukanis and Liberal Jurisprudence
makes it all too easy for the reader to skim through passages without noticing their inner complexity, and to miss the penetrating insights with which the text is studded. At the same time, Pashukanis's compressed style makes some re-construction his argument both necessary and difficult. In this paper I attempt to piece together an exposition those features the theory that I personally find interesting and that I feel have received less attentio…
Between Positivism and Idealism
[W]hatsoever is the object of any man's appetite or desire, that is it which he for his part calleth good : and the object of his hate and aversion, evil; and of his contempt, vile and inconsiderable . For these words of good, evil, and contemptible, are ever used with relation to the person that useth them: there being nothing simply and absolutely so; nor any common rule of good and evil, to be taken from the nature of the objects themselves; b…
Judgment and Mercy
Journal Article Judgment and Mercy Get access N. E. SIMMONDS N. E. SIMMONDS *Fellow of Corpus Christi CollegeCambridge Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Volume 13, Issue 1, Spring 1993, Pages 52–68, https://doi.org/10.1093/ojls/13.1.52 Published: 01 March 1993
A Debate Over Rights
Philosophy of Law
This chapter contains sections titled: Problems of Jurisprudence The Enterprise of Legal Theory From Positivism to Natural Law Theory as Interpretation Law as Integrity Unger and the Critical Legal Studies Movement Philosophical Reconstruction of Legal Doctrine
Law as a Moral Idea
The nature of law is best understood as the expression of a moral idea: the idea of freedom as independence from the power of another. The moral value of law is not contingent upon circumstance, but inherent in its character as law. In making these claims, the book seeks to move jurisprudence closer to an older tradition of philosophical reflection upon law, exemplified by Hobbes and Kant. Most contemporary legal theorists view the understanding …
Freedom, Law, and Naked Violence
The essay defends the thesis that law has an inherently moral aspect. To the extent that law governs, one enjoys a degree of freedom (understood as independence from the power of another) which could exist in no other way. The essay responds to Kramer's criticisms of this argument, presented in an earlier issue of the University of Toronto Law Journal. It is suggested that Kramer misrepresents the argument in several respects. Once his misreprese…
The Logic of Planning and the Aim of the Law
In his recent book, Legality, Scott Shapiro argues that laws are plans. Very similar views have already been developed by Finnis. But Shapiro’s version does nothing to accommodate the status of a legal order as a form of association within which force may ordinarily be employed only against those who have violated the law. Shapiro seeks to reconcile his legal positivism with the thesis that law necessarily has a moral aim. But his argument for th…
An Age of Rights
Rights seem to occupy a prominent place within the moral and political lexicon of modernity. But is this truly an age in which the idea of individual rights has flourished? Or might the frequency with which we speak of rights reflect a failure to appreciate the stringent demands that genuine rights would inevitably place upon us? Does our willingness to frame so many moral issues in terms of rights simply illustrate our failure to take the idea o…
On the Idea of Law
The idea of law is a focus imaginarius lying beyond the bounds of possible experience but nevertheless structuring that experience. The practices composing a legal order refer to the idea of law, and those references embody assumptions concerning law's nature. Yet, when we try to combine these various assumptions into a coherent understanding of the idea of law, we find them to be problematic. The resulting puzzles give rise to a philosophical de…
Political science (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Law and economics (5 works) · Law in Society and Culture (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (5 works) · Sociology (5 works)