What keeps the U.S. legal and constitutional system from devolving into incoherence? Can theories of constitutional interpretation prevent judicial activism? JWI Founder and co-director Hadley Arkes recently discussed themes from his recent book, “Mere Natural Law” in a webinar co-sponsored by the Catholic Bar Association and the James Wilson Institute.
The framers of the Constitution regarded the self-evident truths of the Natural Law as foundational. Yet in our own time, both liberals and conservatives insist that we must interpret the Constitution while ignoring its foundation. Making the case anew for Natural Law, Arkes draws us back to the ground of Natural Law as the American Founders understood it, the anchoring truths of common sense—truths grasped at once by the ordinary man, unburdened by theories imbibed in college and law school.
