Law and Reality: A Dialogue Between Herman Dooyeweerd and John Finnis

Abstract

Herman Dooyeweerd and John Finnis are two legal philosophers from distinct Christian traditions. Chiefly due to the differences between their theological viewpoints, their theories have not been compared much. In this article, I propose an exchange between the two philosophers’ legal theories. I believe there are similarities in their general conceptions of law and how they reason about the interplay between law and reality. Each has developed an all- encompassing philosophical system that has the idea of law as a cornerstone. When dialogue between their theories is achieved, at least at the theoretical level, it is possible to see how they share similar foundations in developing their own idea of law. In this article, I propose such dialogue and demonstrate what these theoretical grounds are. There are more similarities in Dooyeweerd’s and Finnis’s theories than first meets the eyes.

Keywords: Herman Dooyeweerd, John Finnis, law, jurisprudence, philosophy of law, Christian