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Law
UK
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Law

D-Index
55
Citations
12003
World Ranking
39
National Ranking
3

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Law in United Kingdom Leader Award

Overview

John Finnis is affiliated with the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Their research spans several fields within the social sciences, with a primary focus on political science, international relations, law, and philosophy. Additional work also addresses economics, econometrics, and cognitive neuroscience.

The main topics covered in their research include:

  • American Constitutional Law and Politics
  • War, Ethics, and Justification
  • Law in Society and Culture
  • Legal Principles and Applications
  • Medieval Philosophy and Theology
  • Legal Systems and Judicial Processes
  • Legal and Constitutional Studies

Frequent coauthors in their work include John Tasioulas, Robert George, Grant Lamond, Martha C. Nussbaum, and Timothy Macklem.

John Finnis has published articles extensively in the SSRN Electronic Journal, with five papers appearing there. Other publication venues include Persona y Derecho, Studia Philosophiae Christianae, and The American Journal of Jurisprudence.

Recent papers by John Finnis include:

  • "The Unconstitutionality of the Supreme Court's Prorogation Judgment, with Supplementary Notes" (2020) in SSRN Electronic Journal
  • "An Enhanced Amicus Brief in Dobbs" (2021) in SSRN Electronic Journal
  • "Indictability of Early Abortion c. 1868" (2021) in SSRN Electronic Journal
  • "Natural Law: Practical Reason and Creative Information" (2020) in Persona y Derecho
  • "Capital Punishment and Lethal Acts in War" (2024) in Studia Philosophiae Christianae

In addition to articles, John Finnis has contributed to the academic book landscape with titles published by Cambridge University Press and Princeton University Press. Notable books include "The Cambridge Companion to the Philosophy of Law" (2020) and "Rights and Wrongs of Abortion" (2021).

Best Publications

  • Natural Law and Natural Rights

    John M. Finnis

  • Practical Principles, Moral Truth, and Ultimate Ends

    Germain Grisez;Joseph Boyle;John Finnis

  • Nuclear deterrence, morality, and realism

    John M. Finnis

  • Aquinas: Moral, Political, and Legal Theory

    John M. Finnis

  • Fundamentals of ethics

    John M. Finnis

  • Moral Absolutes: Tradition, Revision, and Truth

    John M. Finnis

  • «Direct» and «indirect»: A reply to critics of our action theory

    John Finnis;Germain Grisez;Joseph Boyle

  • The rights and wrongs of abortion: a reply to Judith Thomson.

    John Finnis

  • Law, Morality, and Sexual Orientation

    John M. Finnis

  • Religion and public reasons

    John Finnis

  • Natural Law and Legal Reasoning

    John M. Finnis

  • Law as Co‐ordination

    John M. Finnis

  • On “The Critical Legal Studies Movement”

    John M. Finnis

  • The Good of Marriage and the Morality of Sexual Relations: Some Philosophical and Historical Observations

    John M. Finnis

  • Law and What I Truly Should Decide

    John M. Finnis

  • "Every Marital Act Ought to be Open to New Life": Toward a Clearer Understanding

    Germain Grisez;Joseph Boyle;John Finnis;William E. May

  • Natural Law: The Classical Tradition

    John Finnis

  • On reason and authority in Law's Empire

    John M. Finnis

  • On the Incoherence of Legal Positivism

    John M. Finnis

  • The Basic Principles of Natural Law: A Reply to Ralph McInerny

    John M. Finnis;Germain Grisez

  • Some Professorial Fallacies About Rights

    John M. Finnis

  • Nationality, Alienage and Constitutional Principle

    John Finnis

  • Nuclear Deterrence, Morality, and Realism.

    Milton Fisk;John Finnis;Joseph M. Boyle;Germain Grisez

  • Human rights and common good

    John Finnis

  • Foundations of Practical Reason Revisited

    John M. Finnis

  • Intention and Identity

    John Finnis

  • Philosophy of law

    John Finnis

  • Natural Law and the "Is"-"Ought" Question: An Invitation to Professor Veatch

    John M. Finnis

  • Natural Law and Natural Rights

    Peter Danielson;John Finnis

  • Power to enforce treaties in Australia—the High Court goes centralist?

    John M. Finnis

Frequent Co-Authors

Thomas Nagel
Thomas Nagel New York University
Martha Craven Nussbaum
Martha Craven Nussbaum University of Chicago

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