law, ethics, & politics articles and book chapters
The following is a list of some of Professor Beckwith’s published articles and book chapters in law and ethics. Access to most of them requires a subscription.
“Clarifying the Philosophical and Legal Foundations of Dobbs” (with Jason T. Eberl). American Journal of Bioethics 24.2 (2024): 25-28.
“What’s So Special About Religious Liberty?: Law, Philosophy, and Serving God.” Civil Rights Law Journal 33.1 (2022): 1-29. (Link is to pre-publication draft).
“Violinists, Burglars, People-Seeds, Samaritans, and Reluctant Bone Marrow Donors: Why Do We Need Analogies to Pregnancy in Order to Understand It?” In Agency, Pregnancy, and Persons: Essays in Defense of Human Life. Edited by Nicholas Colgrove, Bruce Blackshaw, and Daniel Rodger. New York: Routledge, 2022. Pp. 212-228. (Link is to pre-publication galleys).
“Separated at Baptism: What the Mortara Case Can Teach Us About the Rejection of Natual Justice by Integralists and Progressives.” BYU Law Review 47.4 (Summer 2022): 1099-1126.
“Moral Relativism: Arguments For and Against.” In The New Apologetics. Edited by Matthew Nelson. Foreword by Cardinal Thomas Collins. Park Ridge, IL: Word on Fire, 2022. Pp. 25-30. (Link to pre-publication draft can be found here)
“Up From Political Liberalism (But Not Entirely).” In Dissident Philosophers: Against the Political Current of the Academy. Edited by Tully Borland and Allan Hillman. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2022. Pp. 29-50
“Why Is Sexual Assault Special?: Transactional Sex and Sacred Intuitions.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Sexual Ethics. Edited by David Boonin. New York: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2022. Pp. 191-202
“Church, State, and the Abuse Crisis: The Role of Assumed Ideas of `Reasonableness’ in Religious Liberty.” Journal of Christian Legal Thought 10.1 (Summer 2020): 21-28.
“Rawls’ Political Liberalism and the Problem of Taking Rites Seriously: From Abortion to Same-Sex Wedding Cakes,” Raised on the Third Day: The Gary Habermas Festschrift. Edited by W. David Beck and Michael R. Licona. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2020. Pp. 75-88
“Moral Status and the Architects of Principlism” (with Allison Thornton). Journal of Medicine & Philosophy 45.4-5 (2020): 504-520.
“Morality is Objective” and “Response to Ruse.” In Problems in Value Theory: An Introduction to Contemporary Debates. Edited by Steven B. Cowan. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020. Pp. 37-49, 50-54.
“Gotta Serve Somebody?: Religious Liberty, Freedom of Conscience, and Religion as Comprehensive Doctrine.”Studies in Christian Ethics 33.2 (2020): 168-178
“Now, I’m Liberal, But to a Degree: An Essay on Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination.” Cleveland State Law Review 67.2 (2019): 141-172.
“Is Religion Special?: More Likely Than Not.” In Handbook of Philosophy & Public Policy. Edited by David Boonin. New York: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2018. Pp. 276-288
“Faith, Reason, and the Liberal Order: A Philosophical Reflection.” Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 92 (2018): 1-18. Published online first September 10, 2020
“Is The Abolition of Man Conservative?” In Contemporary Perspectives on C.S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man: History, Philosophy, Education, and Science. Edited by Gayne Anacker and Tim Mosteller. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017. Pp. 83-96.
“Carl Henry’s Quandary.” Journal of Christian Legal Thought 5.2 (Fall 2015): 21-24.
“Does Judith Jarvis Thomson Really Grant the Prolife View of Fetal Personhood in Her Defense of Abortion?: A Rawlsian Assessment.” International Philosophical Quarterly 54.4 (December 2014): 443-451
“Fides, Ratio et Juris: How Some Courts and Some Legal Theorists Misrepresent the Rational Status of Religious Beliefs.” In Reason, Revelation, and the Civic Order: Political Philosophy and the Claims of Faith. Edited by Paul R. DeHart and Carson Holloway. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2014. Pp. 173-202.
“Secular Bioethics and Its Challenge to the Catholic Citizen.” Nova et Vetra English Edition 12.2 (2014): 471-481
“Personal Bodily Rights, Abortion, and Unplugging the Violinist.” In Today’s Moral Issues: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives, 7/ed., ed. Daniel Bonevac. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013. Pp. 333-359. Republication of an article that appeared in International Philosophical Quarterly 32 (March 1992): 105-118.
“On Making the Case for Life: On St. Peter’s Counsel to Always Be Ready.” National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 13.4 (Winter 2013): 601-609
“Justificatory Liberalism and Same-Sex Marriage.” Ratio Juris: An International Journal of Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law 26.4 (December 2013): 487-509.
“Potentials and Burdens: A Response to Giubilini and Minerva.” Journal of Medical Ethics 39 (May 2013): 341-344.
“Zygotes, Embryos, and Subsistence: A Response to Corcoran.” Philosophia Christi 14.1 (Summer 2012): 209-219.
“The Human Being, a Person of Substance: A Response to Dean Stretton.” In Persons, Moral Worth, and Embryos: A Critical Analysis of Pro-Choice Arguments. Edited by Stephen Napier. (Dordrecht: Springer, 2011), 67-83.
“Dignity Never Been Photographed: Scientific Materialism, Enlightenment Liberalism, and Steven Pinker.” Ethics & Medicine: An International Journal of Bioethics 26.2 (Summer 2010): 93-110.
“How To Be An Anti-Intelligent Design Advocate.”University of St. Thomas Journal of Law & Public Policy 4.1 (2009-2010): 35-65
“Must Theology Sit in the Back of Secular Bus?: The Federal Courts’ View of Religion and Its Status as Knowledge.” Journal of Law & Religion 24.2 (2008-2009): 547-568
“The Courts, Natural Rights, and Religious Claims as Knowledge.” Santa Clara Law Review 49.2 (2009): 429-458.
“Arguments from Bodily Rights: A Critical Analysis.” In What’s Wrong?: Applied Ethicists and Their Critics. 2/e. Edited by David Boonin and Graham Oddie. New York : Oxford University Press, 2009. Pp. 108-114.
“Bioethics, the Christian Citizen, and the Pluralist Game.” Christian Bioethics: Non-Ecumenical Studies in Medical Morality 13 (May 2007): 159-170.
“The Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade, and Abortion Law.” Liberty University Law Review 1.1 (2006): 37-72.
“The Court of Disbelief: The Constitution’s Article VI Religious Test Prohibition and the Judiciary’s Religious Motive Analysis.” Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly 33.2&3 (Winter and Spring 2006): 337-360.
“Taking Theology Seriously: The Status of the Religious Beliefs of Judicial Nominees for the Federal Bench.” Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy 20.1 (2006): 455-471.
“Defending Abortion Philosophically: A Review of David Boonin’s A Defense of Abortion.” Journal of Medicine & Philosophy 31 (April 2006): 177-203.
“Gimme That Ol’ Time Separation: A Review Essay.” Chapman Law Review 8.1 (2005): 309-27.
“Thomson’s `Equal Reasonableness’ Argument for Abortion Rights: A Critique.” American Journal of Jurisprudence 49.1 (2004): 185-198
“The Explanatory Power of the Substance View of Persons.” Christian Bioethics: Non-Ecumenical Studies in Medical Morality 10.1 (2004): 33-54.
“When You Come to a Fork In the Road, Take It?: Abortion, Personhood, and the Jurisprudence of Neutrality.” Journal of Church and State 44.3 (Summer 2003): 485-497.
“Consent, Sex, and the Prenatal Rapist: A Brief Reply to McDonagh’s Suggested Revision of Roe v. Wade.” (co-authored with Steven D. Thomas). Journal of Libertarian Studies 17.3 (Summer 2003): 1-16
“Science and Religion Twenty Years After McLean v. Arkansas: Evolution, Public Education, and the New Challenge of Intelligent Design.” Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy 26.2 (Spring 2003): 455-499.
“Cloning and Reproductive Liberty.” Nevada Law Journal 3.1 (Fall 2002): 61-87
“Law, Religion, and the Metaphysics of Abortion: A Reply to Simmons.” Journal of Church and State 43.1 (Winter 2001): 19-33
“Taking Abortion Seriously: A Philosophical Critique of the New Anti-Abortion Rhetorical Shift.” Ethics & Medicine: An International Journal of Bioethics 17.3(Fall 2001): 155-166.
“Physician-Value Neutrality: A Critique” (with John Peppin). Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics 28.1 (Spring 2000): 67-77.
“The `Nobody Deserves His or Her Talents Argument for Affirmative Action’: A Critical Analysis.” Social Theory and Practice vol. 25, no. 1 (Spring 1999):53-60.
“The Ethics of Referral Kickbacks and Self-Referral and the HMO Physician as Gatekeeper: An Ethical Analysis.” Journal of Social Philosophy28.3 (Winter 1996): 41-48.
“The Epistemology of Political Correctness.” Public Affairs Quarterly 8.4 (October 1994): 331-340.
“Personal Bodily Rights, Abortion, and Unplugging the Violinist.” International Philosophical Quarterly 32.1 (March 1992): 105-118.