Introduction
John Mitchell Finnis (1940-present) is a Catholic legal philosopher specialized in philosophy of law and ethics. He has notably contributed to New Natural Law theory, which is grounded on the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. Finnis has written extensively on jurisprudence, philosophy, law, theology, and history.
Finnis is a Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame (South Bend, IN), and in 2010 he became an Emeritus Professor of law at University College, Oxford. He married Marie C. McNally in 1964, has 6 children, and is a dual citizen of Australia (from birth) and the United Kingdom (2004).
Education and Career
Finnis attended St. Peter’s College, Adelaide (1947–1957) and Adelaide University (1958–1961). In 1962, he won the Rhodes scholarship at University College, Oxford (1962–1965) where he completed his D. Phil with a doctoral thesis on the concept of judicial power, titled “The Idea of Judicial Power, with special reference to Australian federal constitutional...
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Postell, A. (2018). Finnis, John. In: Sellers, M., Kirste, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_386-1
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