Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2004
Publication Information
49 Am. J. Juris. 11 (2004)
Abstract
The form of enactments must be distinguished from their legal meaning (their "juridical effect"), that is, from the propositions of law which those enactments, properly interpreted, make legally valid. This distinction makes it possible, and rationally necessary, to conclude that, in certain contexts, a certain statute which declares or textually implies that some abortions are legally permitted (but others prohibited) is not apermissive law within the meaning of the principle, assumed in this article to be true, that permissive abortion laws are intrinsically unjust and may never be voted for. A permissive statute, in that sense, is one which has the legal meaning (juridical effect) of reducing the state's legal protection of the unborn.
Recommended Citation
John M. Finnis,
Helping Enact Unjust Laws without Complicity in Injustice,
49 Am. J. Juris. 11 (2004).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/869
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Comments
Reprinted with permission of American Journal of Jurisprudence.