Jeremy Christiansen (Regent University – Regent University School of Law) has posted The Classical Legal Tradition as Our Tradition (Catholic University Law Review) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
The last several years have seen a significant rise in scholarly and judicial interest in the classical legal tradition, in large measure due to the work of Professor Adrian Vermeule. Even some of his sharpest critics concede we are in a “natural law moment.” Vermeule’s “Common Good Constitutionalism” was initially met with significant skepticism, which has at some level subsided (particularly on the legal right) with a number of skeptics embracing some version of his argument for natural law thinking. But skepticism remains, particularly among many committed originalists and textualists who tend to characterize the classical tradition as something alien to our tradition, or reconceptualize it to fit largely positivist frameworks. This Article seeks to establish that key components of the classical tradition are rightly called our own tradition in American legal thought and practice. From the classical definition of law as an ordinance of reason promulgated by those in care of the community for the common good, to the concepts of lex and ius, to the moral telos of the law, we find throughout American law not just hints and shadows of the classical tradition, but the tradition itself. Skepticism of the compatibility of the classical tradition with American legal institutions is far from warranted.