The Absence of a Duty to Rescue: Philosophical Foundations of Liberalism

• In Event: Enlargement of Liberal Horizons

Abstract

In this paper, I will discuss the absence of a “duty to rescue” in common law. While natural law would seem to require of everyone a duty of care, a duty to rescue does not exist in common law jurisdictions (with some legislative exceptions). Indeed, common law has never discovered a generalized duty of care in human action that would underpin a duty to rescue. This paper will make the point such an absence is indicative of two crucial but integrated liberal principles: personal responsibility and political liberty. That is, this paper will make a political, rather than simply legal, argument that liberal constitutional societies emphasize personal agency over state administrative agency. At the philosophical center of the discussion is the relation between natural law and common law, and undergirding this relation is a metaphysics of law. The philosophical context will allow us to consider law, politics and their broader, deeper significance for human existence and belonging in the cosmos. In order to do approach this topic, I will draw from both legal and non-legal thinkers, philosophers all: Emmanuel Levinas, John Finnis, and Eric Voegelin, among others.

Author

• James Greenaway, St. Mary's University