Scholar Argued For Moral Understanding of Law

By STEPHEN MILLER and JOE PALAZZOLO

Ronald Dworkin was an acclaimed legal theorist who argued that laws should be understood as part of a larger moral vision rather than as a mere system of rules.

Mr. Dworkin, who died Thursday at age 81 in London, was a law professor in the U.S. and in Britain, where he was also a heralded scholar.

New York University/Associated Press

Ronald Dworkin

In books including "Taking Rights Seriously" and "Law's Empire," Mr. Dworkin set out a vision of law epitomized by the principle of "law as integrity," meaning in part that it shouldn't produce results that aren't in accordance with ordinary morality.

According to the Journal of Legal Studies, he was the second-most cited legal scholar of the 20th century after 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard Posner, a frequent sparring partner.

"Ronald Dworkin was one of the few genuine giants of legal philosophy, combining great learning with profound insight in a way that won't soon be seen again," said Laurence Tribe, a constitutional-law professor at Harvard Law School.

Mr. Dworkin was also a widely read public intellectual, writing essays on such issues as abortion, campaign finance and Supreme Court confirmation hearings, frequently for the New York Review of Books.

His politics were unabashedly liberal, in the spirit of the New Deal. During the 2012 election he wrote, "The election of Mitt Romney and a Republican Congress could well be a catastrophe for both economic stability and social justice."

Mr. Dworkin grew up in Providence, R.I. "I was very competitive, one of those obnoxious people who wants to win every prize. I was a Boy Scout, I was an Eagle Scout, I got every merit badge," he told a New York University publication. He attended Harvard before going to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.

After returning to Harvard for law school, he clerked for Judge Learned Hand of the U.S. Court of Appeals, one of the most eminent judges in the country. He joined the New York firm of Sullivan & Cromwell before switching to academia in 1962, when he took a position at Yale Law School. He later was a professor at Oxford and then at University College London and NYU.

In a 2011 article for the New York Review of Books, "What Is a Good Life?" Mr. Dworkin gave answers from Plato, Hume and Oscar Wilde, who he said believed life should be lived as a work of art. "Why can't a life also be an achievement complete in itself, with its own value in the art in living it displays?" Mr. Dworkin asked.

A version of this article appeared February 15, 2013, on page A6 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Scholar Argued For Moral Understanding of Law.