Allan Beever
'Aristotle on Equity, Law and Justice
Beever, Allan
Authors
Abstract
In a famous passage in his Ethics, Aristotle considers the nature of equity and its relation to justice.1 His conclusion seems to be that equity's role is to prevent the law from adhering too rigidly to its own rules and principles when those rules and principles produce injustice. Hence equity permits judges to depart from legal principle in order to promote justice. In this article, however, I argue that this conclusion is problematic as it is inconsistent with other claims Aristotle makes, both in his short discussion of equity in the Ethics and elsewhere. Accordingly, I suggest a reinterpretation of Aristotle's view that explains more satisfactorily the connection between law, in its various senses, and justice.
Citation
Beever, A. (2004). 'Aristotle on Equity, Law and Justice. Legal Theory, 10(1), 33-50. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1352325204000163
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Publication Date | 2004-03 |
Deposit Date | Aug 11, 2008 |
Publicly Available Date | Mar 28, 2024 |
Journal | Legal Theory |
Print ISSN | 1352-3252 |
Electronic ISSN | 1469-8048 |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 10 |
Issue | 1 |
Pages | 33-50 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1017/s1352325204000163 |
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Copyright Statement
© 2004 Cambridge University Press
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