THE RESTATEMENT OF THE OBVIOUS*

Thomas C. Folsom**

“… we have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first

duty of intelligent men.”1

ABSTRACT

A variation of Moral Realism, as specified in Appendix One of this essay, is a

non–proprietary, non–sectarian, and non–antiquarian set of foundational principles upon which a rule of law, grounded in morality and history and balanced by analytic and pragmatic concerns, can be established among free and equal citizens. A restatement at this level of generality is both possible and highly desirable. This essay proposes a first tentative draft of such a restatement.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ...................................................................................................................301 I. Introduction .............................................................................................................................302 II. First Things.........................................................................................................306

A. Things Not Right.........................................................................................306 B. Things Not Reasonable ...............................................................................311 C. Things Not Nice ..........................................................................................311 D. Things Close to the Line .............................................................................313

III. The Restatement of the Obvious .......................................................................314 A. Topic One: Foundations for Law................................................................314

1. Introduction .......................................................................................314 2. Three Foundations: Ontological, Epistemological, Ethical...............315 3. The Opposite .....................................................................................316 4. The Gap Between Law and Morality ................................................321

B. Topic Two: Sources of Law........................................................................324 1. Introduction .......................................................................................324 2. Three Sources: Positive, Reasonable (or Natural), Historical (or

Normative).........................................................................................325

* © Thomas C. Folsom 2004, 2008. This version of the article is expanded by inclusion of a new abstract, table of

contents, introductory notes and errata. The article as first published did not include these, and begins at page “301” following. ** Associate Professor, Regent University School of Law; J.D. Georgetown University Law Center; B.S., United

States Air Force Academy. I would like to thank Dean Jeffrey Brauch and my colleagues Dr. Joseph Kickasola and Professors Scott Pryor, Craig Stern and Peter Richards for their encouragement, and my Graduate Assistants, Doug Meyers and John Norman for their assistance. The support and assistance were theirs, the mistakes are mine.

1 George Orwell, Review of Power: A New Social Analysis by Bertrand Russell, THE ADELPHI, January 1939, reprinted in GEORGE ORWELL, ESSAYS (John Carey ed., Everyman’s Library 1968) 107 (this source provided to me by Professor Peter Richards). See also, J. BUDZISZEWSKI, WHAT WE CAN’T NOT KNOW: A GUIDE 15 (2003) (same quotation).

2 Thomas C. Folsom ADDENDUM C. Topic Three: Making or Changing Law......................................................328

1. Introduction .......................................................................................328 2. Criteria for Designing Law................................................................328

D. Topic Four: Law and Justice.......................................................................332 1. Introduction .......................................................................................332 2. Criteria for Criticizing Law: The Aspects of Justice.........................333

E. Topic Five: Law and Language...................................................................340 1. Introduction .......................................................................................340 2. Johnny and the Cow ..........................................................................340

IV. Conclusion ........................................................................................................341 A. Note on Sources ..........................................................................................341 B. Concluding Postscript .................................................................................343

Appendix One: Moral Realism and the Restatement of the Obvious .....................347

AMONG THE MORE ANNOYING ERRATA AND OMISSIONS: 1) Page 310, at footnote 12, the citation should read: William W. Bratton, Enron and the

Dark Side of Shareholder Value, 76 TUL. L. REV. 1275 (2002).

Professor William W. Bratton’s article was printed as part of a Socio–Economics and Corporate Law Symposium: The New Corporate Social Responsibility—Does Corporate Law Protect the Interests of Shareholders and Other Stakeholders?

2) Page 315, second line, should read: “[...] true, even though unprovable (indemonstra-

ble) […]” Perhaps when the automated spell–checker balked at “unprovable” (as had been in the

various drafts) it might have been better to keep the suspect expression and to supplement it with an explanatory word (“indemonstrable”), rather than simply accepting the first choice suggested by the automaton. I regret not having noticed this prior to publication.

3) A Note on Provenance (the title): Though the article’s title has a dual significance, it was not immediately inspired by

George Orwell, whose language is now included in the pull–quote and in note 1 of this Addendum. Perhaps more mundanely the title was intended to make a simple and immediate allusion to the work of the American Law Institute in its various “Restatements” of the law, none of which actually gets around to satisfactorily defining or restating certain obviously foundational words or principles used in the Restatements (such as “justice”). As the ALI does in its better work, so this article undertakes to treat the subject matter in a generally descriptive fashion, often using an inductive method though occasionally adding something else, and then arranging the whole in an orderly and numbered sequence and style (as suggested in Appendix One of this article). Of course I am indebted to many sources, and I regret the article as first published did not include notes corresponding to the extended footnotes in this Addendum.

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