Document Type
Book Review
Publication Date
5-1994
Publication Information
61 New Oxford Rev., no. 4, May 1994, at 28 (book review).
Abstract
Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality. By Robert P. George. Oxford University Press. 247 pages. $42.
Robert George's brilliant new book rescues the topic of legal enforcement of moral obligations from both liberals and conservatives. Against Devlin he maintains that "the genuine immorality" of an act is a necessary (but not alone sufficient) condition for the legitimacy of a morals law. Against the liberals he maintains that no principle of justice precludes morals legislation as such. George persuasively argues that morals laws - prohibitions of so-called victimless immoralities like sodomy, prostitution, drug use, suicide - may be enacted. Whether those entrusted with legislative authority should pass this or that law depends upon a host of contingent prudential considerations.
Recommended Citation
Gerard V. Bradley,
Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality,
61 New Oxford Rev., no. 4, May 1994, at 28 (book review)..
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/1836