Law and Liberation

Robert E. Rodes, Jr., is Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame Law School. His previous books include The Legal Enterprise, Ecclesiastical Administration in Medieval England, and Lay Authority and Feformation in the English Church.

"There is much here to cheer, and much to argue with. Both are important. The understanding of law as aspiration, promise, and guidance is a bracing antidote to the reductionist view of law as little more than mechanical precedent and instrument of coercion. Whether or not our society has a shared understanding of the common good sufficient to make Mr. Rodes's proposal work is very much in question. Law and Liberation contributes to our thinking about that critical question, and that is an important contribution indeed. " —Richard John Neuhaus, author of The Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America, and Dispensations: The Future of South Africa as South Africans See It."Robert E. Rodes, Jr., preeminent among Anglo-American jurisprudents for his marriage of the common law to the principles of theology, is unique in his construction of a Christian jurisprudence. In Law and Liberation Rodes addresses the malaise and dilemmas of a consumerist society with brilliant candor, warm charity, and comprehensive wisdom. His approach will please only those who are not the slaves of self-interest, institutional bias, or partisan ideology." —John T. Noonan, Jr., United States Circuit Judge