Lawyers, judges and judicial conduct in Thomistic jurisprudence (Saint Thomas Aquinas)

How the legal thought of St. Thomas Aquinas plays out in light of contemporary legal practice, particularly the role of lawyer and judge, is this project's chief aim. St. Thomas' jurisprudence is an impressive undertaking and quickly evident in most of his chief works. Readily discoverable in his opus are erudite discourses on substantive and procedural law, evidentiary analysis, testimonial delivery, matters of proof, burdens and presumptions, judicial and advocate conduct and character, criminal and civil practice standards, sentencing guidelines and an occupational prescription for lawyer and judge. Thomas' eternal and natural law jurisprudence serves as the underpinning for his legal system and when compared to current utilitarian and positive approaches, delivers a permanency and universality often at odds with current legal thinking. St. Thomas provides a blueprint for the lawyer and judge by laying out the professional and ethical parameters in accordance with reason. Thomas constructs a series of interlocking and interdependent legal forms namely the eternal, natural, divine and human laws,—a hierarchical enterprise where law is far more than a promulgative act. As an example, Thomas' analysis of virtue and law, specifically in light of human operations and the common good of a nation, is an integral component of Thomistic; jurisprudence. So is the connection and commensurateness, of law and justice. That a law, to be a law, must be just, is indisputable in Thomistic jurisprudence. Prudence continues Thomas' review of the interplay between law and virtue. The prudent lawyer and judge conceptually master the law and then apply it appropriately.; Any understanding of Thomistic jurisprudence evaluates communal and collective impacts. Individual rights and adjudications are improper if separated from the communal conscience. Lawyers advocating and judges issuing rulings reference far more than the client or cause.; Thomas' judge insists on evidentiary rigor, demands truth in every context, and requires both case and advocate to adhere to the fundamental tenets of justice and the other virtuous dispositions. Reserved to public authority and separate from the ecclesiastical dimension, the Thomistic judge weighs evidence before legal proclamation, adheres to judicial processes that protect both the client and court, and affords a series of protections to those accused and confronted.; Whether acting as advocate or counselor at law, Thomistic jurisprudence prescribes a series of professional competencies that are consistent with the moral life. The role of defense and prosecution do not escape Thomas' eye, though function can never replace truth over falsehood in the performance of legal task. Thomas's lawyer is a man or woman of virtue, who aggressively represents the client's interests, who rejects the unmeritorious case, who scoffs at causes of action that lack factual integrity, and who refuses to recognize any human law inconsistent with the eternal, divine and natural law.; Thomas offers penology of pure consequence. Each form of punishment restores the equilibrium essential to any justice system. Death penalty, imprisonment, term and time of incarceration, restitution and fines, and victim involvement in meting out the designated punishment, receive close attention from Thomas' cutting mind.; Thomas' legal ideology is contrasted with contemporary Codes of Judicial Conduct and ethical canons of the American Bar Association. Using the language of actual 20th century case law and examining the legal of reasoning of U.S. Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, the work shows how natural law jurisprudence can never really be fully extinguished from the legal landscape.