Edmund Burke Conservative Legal Thinking Research

This essay, consisting of 4 chapters, is devoted to the study of Edmund Burke's conservatism from a legal-political perspective.The first chapter herein is a brief introduction of Edmund Burke and conservatism, which primarily introduced the conservatism as an ideology, including its conception and origin, and then the life, idea course and major publication of Edmund Burke.The second chapter inquires into Edmund Burke's criticism of natural law. To illustrate the core of conservatism and its methodology, it's necessary to establish a reference system for the study of differences between liberalism and conservatism. It follows then a comparison on Burke's legal thoughts and the ideology of natural law, which concludes that Burke, not a true believer of natural law, is theoretically against natural law.The third chapter is summed up on Burke's positive legal thoughts. Of all his basic issues, the first section discusses constitutionalism and state, state and society, law and morals, and liberty and order, respectively. The following section is feature analysis on Burke's legal thoughts.The fourth chapter focuses on the influences of Burke's theories in the history of western legal philosophy. A simple analysis of three liberal thinkers' theories is expected to feature Burke's conservatism great importance and finalize this article. By the last paragraphs comprise some brief comments made on Burke's conservatism, as well as illumination for the current practice of the rule by law.