Ronald Dworkin | Legal scholar, 81
American philosopher and constitutional law expert Ronald Dworkin, 81, a liberal scholar who argued that the law should be founded on moral integrity, died of leukemia Thursday in London, his family said.
American philosopher and constitutional law expert Ronald Dworkin, 81, a liberal scholar who argued that the law should be founded on moral integrity, died of leukemia Thursday in London, his family said.
Mr. Dworkin was a professor of law at New York University and emeritus professor at University College London. He was one of the best known and most quoted legal scholars in the United States and was also an expert on British law.
Mr. Dworkin was best known for the idea that the most important virtue the law can display is integrity - understood as the moral idea that the state should act on principle so each member of the community is treated as an equal.
A frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books, Mr. Dworkin's own works included A Matter of Principle, Law's Empire, and Justice for Hedgehogs.
- AP