What role does reason play in determining what, if anything, is morally right? What role does morality play in law? Perhaps the most controversial answer to these fundamental questions is that reason supports a supreme principle of both morality and legality. The contributors to this book cast a fresh critical eye over the coherence of modern approaches to ethical rationalism within law, and reflect on the intellectual history on which it builds. The contributors then take the debate beyond the traditional concerns of legal theory into areas such as the relationship between morality and international law, and the impact of ethically controversial medical innovations on legal understanding.

1. The Past, Present and Future of Ethical Rationalism Patrick Capps and Shaun D Pattinson2. How to Become a Successful Hegelian Stuart Toddington3. Identifying and Justifying Moral Norms: Necessary Basics Kenneth R Westphal4. Hope, Agency, and Aesthetic Sensibility: A Response to Beyleveld's Account of Kantian Hope Dascha Düring and Marcus Düwell5. Justification in Morality and the Law Michael Boylan6. Advance Refusals and the Personal Identity Objection Shaun D Pattinson7. Law as a Moral Judgment, the Domain of Jurisprudence, and Technological Management Roger Brownsword8. Beyond Reason: The Legal Importance of Emotions Thom Brooks and Diana Sankey9. Public Goods in the Ethical Reconsideration of Research Innovation Benjamin Capps10. Privacy, Politeness and the Boundary Between Theory and Practice in Ethical Rationalism David Townend11. Fidelity to International Law: On International Courts and Politics Henrik Palmer Olsen12. Legal Idealism and Global Law Patrick Capps13. What Is Gewirth and What Is Beyleveld? A Retrospect with Comments on the Contributions Deryck Beyleveld