Where Are We Now? Michael Ignatieff’s, The Ordinary Virtues: Moral Order in a Divided World

The book that has most stimulated my life in the law over the past year is Michael Ignatieff’s The Ordinary Virtues: Moral Order in a Divided World.1 I write “stimulated” rather than “inspired” because some of its claims are disorientating, others are disputable, and the most important are disconcer...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Malcolm MacLaren
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press 2019-07-01
Series:German Law Journal
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Online Access:https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2071832219000609/type/journal_article
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Summary:The book that has most stimulated my life in the law over the past year is Michael Ignatieff’s The Ordinary Virtues: Moral Order in a Divided World.1 I write “stimulated” rather than “inspired” because some of its claims are disorientating, others are disputable, and the most important are disconcerting. Despite, or rather due to, that provocation I find the book more engaging. The Ordinary Virtues is a self-described moral progress report amid globalization and as such is a work of sociology, anthropology, and philosophy. However, Ignatieff’s report implicates many important topical issues of international and constitutional law. It should, I believe, inform the thinking of legal scholars on global ethics and public policy today.
ISSN:2071-8322