Julius Stone Address: Law, Philosophy, and the Susceptible Skins of Living Beings

In-person event

Catherine the Great (apparently) wrote to the French philosopher Diderot something along the lines of: “You philosophers are fortunate. You write on paper, and paper is patient. Unfortunate emperor that I am, I write on the susceptible skins of living beings.” Catherine expressed, I think, an important insight, that is true of the law as well: the law writes on the susceptible skins of living beings.

This doesn’t mean, of course, that we should not philosophize about the law, or that we should not take advantage of the benefits of having patient paper to write on. But as we do so, we should philosophize about the law all the time fully realizing that the law itself does not write on patient paper, but on the susceptible skins of living beings. This has important implications to how we should – and how we should not – do philosophy of law. This talk elaborates on these implications – both in general, and using more specific examples.

About the speaker

Professor David Enoch

David Enoch is The Professor of the Philosophy of Law at Oxford, and the Rodney Blackman Chair in the Philosophy of Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He works primarily in moral, political, and legal philosophy.

David studies law and philosophy at Tel Aviv University, and then got his PhD in philosophy at NYU (2003). He has published a book defending moral realism (Taking Morality Seriously, OUP 2011), and many papers mostly in moral, political, and legal philosophy.

Wednesday 31 July, 2024

Time: 6-7.30pm

Venue: Auditorium 104/105, Michael Spence Building (F23), City Road, University of Sydney, Camperdown campus

This event is hosted by the Julius Stone Institute of Jurisprudence at The University of Sydney Law School.

The Julius Stone Address is generously sponsored by the Educational Heritage Foundation. It is named to commemorate the life and work of Professor Julius Stone, Australia’s foremost legal philosopher and for many years Challis Professor of International Law and Jurisprudence at The University of Sydney.