About Robert P. George

Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He is also Professor of Politics and an associated member of the faculty of Princeton’s Department of Philosophy.

He grew up in West Virginia where his paternal grandfather, an immigrant from Syria, was a coal miner and railroad worker and his maternal grandfather, an immigrant from southern Italy, was a miner who later went into the grocery business, first in the town of Star City then in Morgantown. In his early teens, he became a bluegrass banjo player and finger style guitarist, who performed with local bands at coffee houses, state and county fairs, and “rod and gun” clubs. He also developed a lifelong love of sport fishing.

As a teenager, George became interested in politics and involved in the pro-life and anti-Vietnam War movements. He served as an intern on the staff of Ken Hechler, a pro-life liberal Democratic congressman representing West Virginia’s fourth congressional district, and served twice as Governor of the West Virginia Democratic Youth Conference. As late as 1976, he remained active in the Democratic Party, attending its national convention in New York City as an alternate delegate. As the Democratic Party moved leftward on moral and cultural issues, particularly abortion, George grew increasingly disaffected, and by 1984 identified himself as a political independent rather than as a Democrat. At the same time, he began to question the efficacy of federal social welfare programs, and to worry about whether well-intentioned efforts to relieve poverty, especially in his native Appalachia, were in fact having the perverse effect of entrenching it. He grew particularly concerned about poor communities in both rural and urban areas where out-of-wedlock birth rates were skyrocketing, family stability was suffering, and large numbers of children were being reared in circumstances of fatherlessness. Although he remained convinced of the importance of a social safety net, he joined the emerging movement to reform social policies in ways that would strengthen the marriage culture and avoid undermining the autonomy and authority of key institutions of civil society, beginning with the family.

George attended Swarthmore College, where he served as student body president, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and received the Ivy Award as the outstanding graduating man. At Swarthmore, he studied moral and political philosophy and became interested in natural law. An existentially critical moment came when he read Plato’s dialogue Gorgias in a political philosophy seminar. The experience turned him away from a planned career in politics and towards a career in scholarship and teaching. He went from Swarthmore to Harvard University where he earned a masters degree in theology and a law degree. He received a Knox Scholarship from Harvard for advanced study in law and philosophy at Oxford University. At Oxford he studied under the supervision of John Finnis, completing a doctoral thesis on natural law and the legal enforcement of moral obligations. His dissertation criticized as excessively libertarian the political philosophy of Germain Grisez and Joseph M. Boyle, Jr. as presented in their 1976 book Life and Death with Liberty and Justice. In connection with his work, George exchanged letters with Grisez and was impressed by Grisez’s openness to intellectual criticism and his willingness to help a young aspiring scholar who disagreed with aspects of his thought.

In 1985, while completing his doctoral dissertation, he began teaching at Princeton in the fields of philosophy of law and constitutional studies. Despite his reputation as a demanding teacher and a rigorous grader, his undergraduate courses on constitutional interpretation and civil liberties are among the most popular and highly rated in the university. In 1994, he was awarded tenure and in 1999 he was named McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence—the sixth in a line that began with Woodrow Wilson and has included such luminaries as Edward S. Corwin and Alpheus T. Mason. In 2000, he received the Stanley Kelley Jr. Award for Outstanding Teaching.

In 1989, George took a leave from Princeton to serve as a Judicial Fellow at the Supreme Court of the United States, where he worked for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and received the Justice Tom C. Clark Award. On the morning of January 20, 1993, he was appointed by President George H. W. Bush to a six-year term on the United States Commission on Civil Rights. He led that Commission’s examination of unconstitutional restrictions of religious freedom in America’s public schools. From 2002–2009 he served as a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics. He closely advised President George W. Bush on questions of human embryo-destructive research and cloning.

He is a member of the editorial boards of First Things and Touchstone magazines, Public Discourse, the American Journal of Jurisprudence, the Journal of Law, Philosophy, and Culture, and several other publications. He is general editor of New Forum Books, an imprint of Princeton University Press. He serves on the boards of directors of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, the Institute for American Values, the Institute on Religion and Democracy, the Center for Individual Rights, the Family Research Council, and the Culture of Life Foundation. He is founder of the American Principles Project, a pro-life and pro-marriage political organization, and co-founder and chairman of the board of directors of the National Organization for Marriage. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is the Herbert W. Vaughan Senior Fellow of the Witherspoon Institute. In addition, he is Of Counsel to the law firm of Robinson & McElwee. In 1994, he represented Mother Teresa of Calcutta on her amicus curiae brief asking the Supreme Court of the United States to reverse its decision in Roe v. Wade.

On December 10, 2008 at a ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House, George received the Presidential Citizens Medal, one of the highest honors that can be conferred by the United States on a civilian. The citation accompanying the medal praised the recipient for bringing rigor and analytical precision to the study of American principles. George is also a recipient of the Sidney Hook Award of the National Association of Scholars, the Philip Merrill Award of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, the Bradley Prize for Intellectual and Civic Achievement, the Paul Bator Award of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy, a Silver Gavel Award of the American Bar Association, the Cardinal Wright Award of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, and the Pope Pius XI Award of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists. He holds honorary doctorates of law, letters, science, ethics, civil law, humane letters, and juridical science.

The influence of Professors Grisez, Finnis, and Boyle on George’s thought is evident in his writings in moral, political, and legal philosophy and in his public advocacy on behalf of the sanctity of human life and the institution of marriage. He regularly collaborates closely with other scholars who have been influenced by Grisez, Finnis, and Boyle, particularly Patrick Lee, Christopher Tollefsen, and Gerard V. Bradley.

Robert P. George's Books
 Authored, Co-authored, or Edited

Public Morality: Contemporary Debates (Institute of Social Studies [Chile, in Spanish], 2009).

Between Law and Morality (Thomson Reuters [Spain, in Spanish], 2009).

Body-Self Dualism in Contemporary Ethics and Politics, with Patrick Lee (Cambridge University, 2008).

Embryo: A Defense of Human Life, with Christopher Tollefsen (Doubleday, 2008).

The Meaning of Marriage: Family, State, Market, and Morals, ed. with Jean Bethke Elshtain (Spence, 2006).

Natural Law in the International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, 2nd Series, gen. ed. T. Campbell (Dartmouth and Ashgate, 2003).

The Clash of Orthodoxies: Law, Religion, and Morality in Crisis (ISI Books, 2001; paperback with new Afterword, 2002).

Constitutional Politics: Essays on Constitution Making, Maintenance, and Change, ed. with S. Barber (Princeton University, 2001).

Great Cases in Constitutional Law, ed. (Princeton University, 2000).

Natural Law and Public Reason, ed. with C. Wolfe (Georgetown University, 2000).

In Defense of Natural Law (Oxford University, 1999; paperback, 2001)

Natural Law and Moral Inquiry: Ethics, Metaphysics, and Politics in the Work of Germain Grisez, ed. (Georgetown University, 1998).

Natural Law, Liberalism, and Morality, ed. (Oxford University, 1996).

The Autonomy of Law: Essays on Legal Positivism, ed. (Oxford University, Press: 1996; paperback, 1999).

Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality (Oxford University, 1993; paperback, 1995; Spanish trans. (with new Epilogue), Para hacer mejores a los hombres: Libertades civiles y moralidad publica (Ediciones Internacionales Universitarias Madrid, 2002); ch. 1 reprinted as “Government and Character,” in Social and Political Philosophy, ed. George Sher and Baruch Brody (Harcourt Brace, 2000); and as “The Central Tradition” in Virtue Jurisprudence, ed. Colin Farrelly and Lawrence Solum (Palgrave; MacMillan, 2008); 20–42; reprinted in Political Philosophy, ed. Louis Pojman (McGraw-Hill, 2001), 321–33.

Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays, ed. (Oxford University, 1992; paperback, 1994).

Other Scholarly Works

“Ontological and Ethical Implications of Direct Nuclear Reprogramming,” with M. Condic and P. Lee, Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, 19:1 (2009): 33–41.

“Embryonic Human Persons,” EMBO Reports (European Molecular Biology Association), 10:4 (2009): 1–6.

“What Male-Female Complementarity Makes Possible: Marriage as a Two-In-One-Flesh Union,” with P. Lee, Theological Studies, 69 (2008): 641–62.

“The Nature and Basis of Human Dignity,” with P. Lee, Ratio Juris, 21:2 (2008): 173–93; reprinted in Human Dignity and Bioethics, ed. Adam Schulman (GPO, 2008), 409–34.

“Embryo Ethics,” Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 137:1 (2008): 23–35.

“Natural Law,” in The Oxford Handbook of Law and Politics, ed. Keith Whittington, R. Daniel Kelemen, and Gregory A. Caldeira (Oxford University, 2008), 399–413.

“Slouching Towards Gomorrah Revisited,” Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, 31:2 (2008): 505–10.

“Business in a Decent and Dynamic Society,” in Rethinking Business Management, ed. Samuel Gregg and James R. Stoner, Jr. (The Witherspoon Institute, 2008), 63–70.

“Natural Law,” American Journal of Jurisprudence, 52 (2008): 55–75; reprinted in Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, 31:1 (2008): 1–26.

“Restricting Reasons; Attenuating Discourse: Rawls, Habermas, and the Catholic Problem,” in Human Nature and Its Wholeness, ed. Daniel N. Robinson, Gladys M. Sweeney, and Richard Gill (Catholic University of America, 2006), 80–95; reprinted with abridgements and additions as “Public Morality, Public Reason,” First Things, 167 (Nov. 2006): 21–26.

“Dignitatis Humanae: The Freedom of the Church and the Responsibility of the State,” with W. Saunders, in Catholicism and Religious Freedom, ed. Kenneth L. Grasso and Robert P. Hunt (Rowman and Littlefield, 2006), 1–17.

“Seeking Consensus: A Clarification and Defense of Altered Nuclear Transfer,” with W. Hurlbut and M. Grompe, Hastings Center Report, 36:5 (2006): 42–50.

“Are Human Embryos Human Beings? If So, What Level of Respect Do Embryonic Human Beings Deserve?” Trinity Law Review, 13:1 (2006): 26–44.

“The First Fourteen Days of Human Life,” with P. Lee, The New Atlantis, 13 (Sum. 2006): 61–67.

“Terri Schiavo: A Right to Life Denied or a Right to Die Honored?” Constitutional Commentary, 22 (2006): 101–108.

“Pope John Paul II,” with G. Bradley, in The Teachings of Modern Christianity: Law, Politics, and Human Nature, ed. John Witte and Frank Alexander (Columbia University, 2006), 220–57.

“Moral Issues, Political Candidates, and the Vocation of Public Service,” in The Great Life, ed. Michael Aquilina and Kenneth Ogorek (Emmaus Road, 2005), 87–101; reprinted in Voices, 22:2 (2007)

“Acorns and Embryos,” with P. Lee, New Atlantis, 7 (Fall/Winter, 2004–2005): 90–100.

“Natural Law and Human Rights: A Conversation,” in Does Human Rights Need God? ed. Elizabeth Bucar and Barbra Barnette (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2005), 135–44.

“The Wrong of Abortion,” with P. Lee, in Contemporary Debates in Applied Ethics, ed. Andrew I. Cohen and Christopher H. Wellman (Blackwell Publishers, 2005), 13–26; reprinted in Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Bioethical Issues, 11, ed. Carol Levine (McGraw-Hill, 2006).

“What’s Sex Got to Do With It? Marriage, Morality, and Rationality,” American Journal of Jurisprudence, 49 (2004): 63–85; reprinted with additions in The Meaning of Marriage: Family, State, Market, and Morals, ed. Robert P. George and Jean Bethke Elshtain (Spence, 2006), 142–71.

“Judicial Usurpation and Sexual Liberation,” Regent University Law Review, 17:1 (2004), 1–10; reprinted as “High Courts and Misdemeanors,” Touchstone, 17:8 (Oct. 2004); New Jersey Family Magazine (2005), 20–24; reprinted as Judicial Usurpation: Perennial Temptation, Contemporary Challenge, in Ourselves and Our Posterity: Essays in Constitutional Originalism ed. Bradley C. S. Watson (Lexington, 2009), 49–60.

“Presidential Leadership and the Judiciary,” in Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and Worst in the White House, ed. James Taranto and Leonard Leo (Wall Street Journal Books, 2004), 234–40.

“Human Cloning and Embryo Research,” Journal of Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, 25:1 (2004): 3–20.

“Gratz and Grutter: Some Hard Questions, ” Columbia Law Review, 103:6 (2003): 1634–39.

“The Unorthodox Liberalism of Joseph Raz” (revised and expanded), in Liberalism at the Crossroads, 2nd ed., ed. Christopher Wolfe (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003), 161–76; original version Review of Politics, 53:4 (Fall 1991): 1–20; reprinted in Liberalism at the Crossroads. ed. Christopher Wolfe and John Hittinger (Rowman & Littlefield, 1994), 151–64.

“Oliver Wendell Holmes on Natural Law,” Villanova Law Review, 48:1 (2002): 1–12; reprinted in Regent University Law Review, 15:2 (2002–2003): 175–86; The Good Society, 12:3 (2003): 32–37; and in Nature in American Philosophy, ed. Jean DeGroot (Catholic University of America: 2004), 127–37.

“The Moral Status of the Human Embryo,” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 48:2 (2005): 201–10; reprinted from Human Cloning and Human Dignity, ed. Leon R. Kass (Public Affairs, 2002), 294–306; and Human Cloning and Human Dignity: An Ethical Inquiry (The President’s Council on Bioethics, 2002), 258–66.

“Reply to Target Article: Inventing the Subject: The Renewal of ‘Psychological’ Psychology,” Antropologisk Psykologi, 11 (2002): 58–61.

“Legal Positivism,” in Legal Systems of the World, ed. Herbert Kritzer (ABC-CLIO, 2002), 888–91.

“Natural Law and the Constitution Revisited,” Fordham Law Review, 70:2 (2001): 273–82.

“Reason, Freedom, and the Rule of Law,” American Journal of Jurisprudence, 46 (2001): 249–56; reprinted in the American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Philosophy and Law, 1:1 (Fall 2001): 123–26; Regent University Law Review, 15:2 (2002–2003): 187–94; in Faith, Freedom, and the Future: Religion in American Political Culture, ed. Charles W. Dunn (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), 77–86; The Clarion Review, 2 (2004): 17–21; and in Recovering Self-Evident Truths: Catholic Perspectives on American Law, ed. Michael A. Scaperlanda and Teresa Stanton Collet (Catholic University of America, 2007), 152–60.

“The Natural Law Due Process Philosophy,” Fordham Law Review, 69:6 (2001): 230–12; reprinted in International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, 2nd ser., ed. T. Campbell (Dartmouth and Ashgate, 2003).

“The Concept of Public Morality,” American Journal of Jurisprudence, 45 (2000): 17–31; reprinted in The Person and the Polis, ed. Craig Steven Titus (Institute for the Psychological Sciences, 2006), 55–74.

“Natural Law and Public Reason,” in Natural Law and Public Reason, ed. Robert P. George and Christopher Wolfe (Georgetown University, 2000), 51–74.

“Bioethics and Public Policy: Catholic Participation in the American Debate,” with W. Saunders, in Issues for a Catholic Bioethic, ed. Luke Gormally (Linacre Center, 1999), 274–99.

“One Hundred Years of Legal Philosophy,” Notre Dame Law Review, 74:5 (1999): 1533–49; reprinted in One Hundred Years of Philosophy, ed. Brian J. Shanley (Catholic University of America, 2001), 79–94; and as “What is Law? A Century of Arguments,” in First Things, 112 (April 2001): 23–29.

“Natural Law, the Constitution, and the Theory and Practice of Judicial Review,” in Vital Remnants: America’s Founding and the Western Tradition, ed. Gary L. Gregg (ISI Books, 1999), 151–74; reprinted Fordham Law Review, 69:6 (2001): 2269–83; and in International Library of Essays in Law Legal Theory, 2nd ser., ed. T. Campbell (Dartmouth and Ashgate, 2003).

“Religious Values and Politics,” with W. Saunders, in Religious Values at the Threshold of the Third Millennium, ed. Francis A. Eigo (Villanova University, 1999), 103–34.

“Reflections on the Ethics of Representing Clients Whose Aims Are Unjust,” South Texas Law Review, 40:1 (1999): 55–64.

“Kelsen and Aquinas on ‘The Natural Law Doctrine,’” in Hans Kelsen: A Twenty-Five Year Commemoration, ed. Georges Mazur (Semenenko Foundation, 1999), 90–106; reprinted Notre Dame Law Review, 75:5 (2000): 1625–46; in St. Thomas Aquinas and the Natural Law Tradition, ed John Goyette, Mark S. Latkovic, and Richard S. Myers (Catholic University of America, 2004), 237–59; “Kelsen y Santo Tomás sobre ‘la doctrina de la Ley Natural’,” Persona y Derecho, 42 (2000): 65–94.

“Protecting Religious Freedom in the New Millennium: Should the Religion Clauses of the Constitution be Amended?” Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, 32:1 (1998): 27–49.

“Judicial Review and the Religion Clauses: A Response to Professor Greenawalt,” Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, 32:1 (1998): 59–62.

“Nature, Morality, and Homosexuality,” in Natural Law and Contemporary Public Policy, ed. David Forte (Georgetown University, 1998), 29–40.

“Justice, Legitimacy, and Allegiance,” Loyola Law Review, 44:1 (1998): 103–18; reprinted in The End of Democracy II: A Crisis of Legitimacy, ed, Mitchell Muncy (Spence, 1998), 86–104; in Constitutional Politics: Essays on Constitution Making, Maintenance, and Change, ed. Sotirios Barber and Robert P. George (Princeton University, 2001), 314–27.

“Marriage and the Illusion of Moral Neutrality,” in The Political Order and Culture: Towards the Renewal of Civilization, ed. T. William Boxx and Gary Quinlivan (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1998), 114–27; reprinted in Homosexuality and American Public Life, ed. Christopher Wolfe (Spence, 1998), pp. 141–54; Marriage and the Common Good, ed. Kenneth D. Whitehead (St. Augustine’s, 2001), 79–98; Do the Right Thing, ed. Francis Beckwith (Wadsworth/Thompson Learning, 2001), 646–56; and Marriage and Same Sex Unions, ed. Lynn D. Wardle, Mark Strasser, and David Orgon Coolidge (Praeger, 2003), 119–32.

“Il pluralismo morale, la ragione pubblica e la legge naturale,” in Etica e Politica nella Societa del Duemila, ed. Robert A. Gahl (Armando Editore, 1998), 79–91; reprinted in English in Is a Cultural Life Still Possible? ed. Anthony Mastroni (St. Augustine’s, 1999), 21–37; and in Spanish in Más allá del liberalism, ed. Robert A. Gahl (EUNSA, 2002).

“What Sex Can Be: Alienation, Illusion, or One-Flesh Union,” with P. Lee, American Journal of Jurisprudence, 42 (1997): 135–57.

“Natural Law and Liberal Public Reason,” with C. Wolfe, American Journal of Jurisprudence, 42 (1997): 31–49.

Making Children Moral: Pornography, Parents, and the Public Interest, Arizona State Law Review, 29 (1997): 569–80; reprinted in International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, 2nd ser., ed. T. Campbell (Dartmouth and Ashgate, 2003).

“Public Reason and Political Conflict: Abortion and Homosexual Acts,” Yale Law Journal, 106 (1997): 2475–2504.

“Law, Democracy, and Moral Disagreement,” Harvard Law Review, 110 (1997): 1388–1406; reprinted in Deliberative Politics: Essays on Democracy and Disagreement, ed. Stephen Macedo (Oxford University, 1999), 184–97.

“Outer Limits: The Commerce Clause and Judicial Review,” with G. Bradley, in The Supreme Court and American Constitutionalism, ed. Bradford P. Wilson and Ken Masugi (Rowman and Littlefield, 1997), 195–209.

“A Defense of the New Natural Law Theory,” American Journal of Jurisprudence, 41 (1996): 47–61); reprinted in International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, 2nd ser., ed. D. T. Campbell (Dartmouth and Ashgate, 2003).

“Natural Law Ethics,” in A Companion to the Philosophy of Religion, ed. Philip L. Quinn and Charles Taliaferro (Blackwell, 1996), 362–65.

“Natural Law and Positive Law,” The Autonomy of Law: Essays on Legal Positivism, ed. Robert P. George (Oxford University Press, 1996), 321–34; reprinted in Common Truths: New Perspectives on the Natural Law, ed. David McLean (ISI Books, 1999), 151–68; in Arguing about Law, ed. Aileen Kavanagh and John Oberdiek (Routledge, 2009), 144–52; and in Spanish in Persona y Derecho, 39 (1998): 219–36.

“‘Shameless Acts’ Revisited: Some Questions for Martha Nussbaum,” Academic Questions, 9:1 (1995): 24–42.

“Marriage and the Liberal Imagination,” with G. Bradley, Georgetown Law Journal, 84:2 (1995): 301–20.

“Natural Law and International Order,” in The Constitution of International Society, ed. Terry Nardin (Princeton University, 1996); reprinted in Catholicism, Liberalism, and Communitarianism, ed. Kenneth Grasso, et al. (Rowman and Littlefield, 1995), 133–49.

“The New Natural Law Theory: A Reply to Jean Porter,” with G. Bradley, American Journal of Jurisprudence, 39 (1994): 303–15.

“Natural Law and Civil Rights: From Jefferson’s Letter to Henry Lee to Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Catholic University Law Review, 43:1 (1993): 143–57.

“Religious Liberty and Political Morality, in We Hold These Truths and More: Reflections on the American Proposition, ed. Stephen Krason and Donald D’Elia (University of Steubenville, 1993), 166–81.

Liberty Under the Moral Law: Hoose’s Critique of the Grisez-Finnis Theory of Human Good,” Heythrop Journal, 34:2 (Apr. 1993): 175–82.

“Can Sex Be Reasonable?” Columbia Law Review, 93:3,(Apr. 1993): 783–94.

“Does the ‘Incommensurability Thesis’ Imperil Common Sense Moral Judgments?” American Journal of Jurisprudence, 37 (1992): 185–95.

“Proportionalism and the Catholic Moral Tradition,” University of Detroit Law Review, 70:1 (Fall 1992): 1–11; This World, 27 (1992): 46–55.

“Free Choice, Practical Reason, and Fitness for the Rule of Law,” in Social Discourse and Moral Judgment, ed. Daniel N. Robinson (Academic, 1992),123–32.

“Natural Law and Human Nature,” in Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays, ed. Robert P. George (Oxford University, 1992), 31–41; in Spanish in Anuario de Filosofia Juridica y Social, 20 (2000): 597–610.

“Academic Freedom: The Grounds for Tolerating Abuses,” in Proceedings of the Wethersfield Institute, 4, ed. Ralph McInerny(Ignatius, 1992), 43–50.

“Life as an Evil; Death as a Good: Dualism and Callahan’s Inversion,” in Set No Limits: A Rebuttal to Daniel Callahan’s Proposal to Limit Health Care for the Elderly, ed. Gerard Bradley and Robert Barry (University of Illinois, 1991), 15–28.

“Conscience and the Public Person,” Catholic Conscience: Foundation and Formation, ed. Russell E. Smith (Pope John XXIII Medical-Moral Research Center, 1991), 217–33.

“Social Cohesion and the Legal Enforcement of Morality,” American Journal of Jurisprudence, 35 (1990): 15–46.

“Moralistic Liberalism and Legal Moralism,” Michigan Law Review, 88:6 (1990): 1415–29.

“Self-Evident Practical Principles and Rationally Motivated Action: A Reply to Michael Perry,” Tulane Law Review, 64:4 (1990): 887–94.

“Individual Rights, Collective Interests, Public Law, and American Politics,” Law and Philosophy, 8:2 (Aug. 1989): 245–61; reprinted in International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, ed.T. Campbell (Dartmouth Publishing and NYU Press, 1991); and as “Natural Law, the Common Good, and American Politics,” in The Battle for the Catholic Mind, ed. William E. May and Kenneth D. Whitehead (St. Augustine’s, 2001), 308–21.

“Human Flourishing as a Criterion of Morality: A Critique of Perry’s Naturalism,” Tulane Law Review, 63:6 (1989): 1455–74; reprinted in International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, ed. T. Campbell (Dartmouth Publishing and NYU Press, 1991).

“Moral Particularism, Thomism, and Traditions,” The Review of Metaphysics, 42 (1989): 593–605.

“Recent Criticism of Natural Law Theory,” University of Chicago Law Review, 55:4 (1988): 1371–1429; reprinted in International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory, ed. T. Campbell (Dartmouth Publishing and NYU Press, 1991).

“Trimming the Ivy: A Bicentennial Re-Examination of the Establishment Clause,” with W. Porth, West Virginia Law Review, 90:1 (Fall 1987): 109–70.