Editor's note

• Author: Guo Rui
• Position: GUO Rui (??), S.J.D, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, USA; Associate Professor, School of Law, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China. Contact: rguo@ruc.edu.cn
• Pages: 371-372

FRONTIERS OF LAW IN CHINA

VOL. 15 DECEMBER 2020 NO. 4

DOI 10.3868/s050-009-020-0021-5

FOCUS

NATURAL LAW IN A CHANGING WORLD

EDITOR’S NOTE

GUO Rui*

With the growing emphasis on the rule of law in China, the improvement of basic

legal theory research has become more important. As one of the enduring themes of

Western legal theories, natural law theory is attracting ever-increasing attention from

Chinese scholars, and the translation of Western natural law theories and further research

on their basis is becoming popular. The search for a consensus between China and the

West is needed in this era of globalization that includes both opportunities and challenges,

and natural law (along with natural law theory) is an important bridge to promote this

consensus. Prominent Western scholars, including Oxford University scholar C. S. Lewis,

have pointed out that Chinese thinkers such as Confucius also had a wealth of ideas on

natural law. We have therefore organized the FOCUS of the issue on natural law and

natural law theories.

We are honored to publish John Finnis’s paper “Natural Law: Practical Reason and

Creative Information.” Professor Finnis is a leading moral, political, and legal

philosopher who specializes in natural law theories. This paper is a well-written, carefully

crafted summary of natural law that presents nine theses that are among the most

important in natural law theory. ZHANG Shoudong’s paper, “Human Life and Human

Rights: Death Penalty Data and Sentencing Procedure during the Song Dynasty,”

explores the adjudication and amnesty system of the Song Dynasty. Similar to the

Western natural law theories in modern times, in the Song Dynasty, the discussion on the

death penalty has involved discussions on the importance of human life and the concern

of excessive execution. Through trimming capital punishment, Song officials were able to

avoid rigidity and the abuse of the death penalty and strike a balance among justice,

efficiency, and mercy. The paper by GUO Rui and John S. Baker, Jr., “The Natural Law

Foundation of the Market,” offers a coherent explanation of the market based on natural

law theories and provides a theoretical basis for its regulation. The authors point out that

the legitimacy of the market lies in the ethical origins of the market order, and it therefore

* GUO Rui (郭锐), S.J.D, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, USA; Associate Professor, School of

Law, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China. Contact: rguo@ruc.edu.cn