This book develops an account of economic justice rooted in the natural law tradition. In it, I elaborate a particular version of natural law theory, explain how it is relevant to reflection on economic issues, and develop natural law accounts of property, distribution, and work. Then, I go on to examine how, in light of natural law theory, individual and institutional actors might respond to injustice, accident, and economic insecurity. I use natural law theory as a basis for staking positions on a number of contested issues related to economic life while also challenging alternate positions on some of these issues.

Natural law theory offers a provocative alternative to Kantian and consequentialist understandings of morals, politics, and law. It emphasizes substantive rather than formal accounts of human flourishing and a plurality of both (i) basic aspects of well being and (ii) norms of practical reasonableness. Contemporary natural law theories reflect the influence, of course, of Aristotle and Aquinas. But natural law theorists now employ the techniques and vocabulary of analytic moral and political philosophy. And, despite the theological roots of their position, their characteristic arguments are straightforwardly philosophical.

I draw especially in this book on the so-called “new classical natural law” (NCNL) theory, articulated primarily in the work of Germain Grisez, John Finnis, Joseph M. Boyle, Jr., Robert P. George, and Chris Tollefsen. But I also take seriously the work of other natural law theorists, including Mark Murphy, Alfonso Gómez-Lobo, and Timothy Chappell.