A Sketch of Confucian Virtue Jurisprudence
儒家美德法理学论纲

Confucian moral thought could be read as a moderate version of virtue ethics . It takes the innate dispositions (virtues) of agents as the fundamental source of moral worth while still emphasizes the value of external rules of conduct ( Li) . Confucian virtue jurisprudence is a contemporary theory of law that is inspired by the ancient moral thought of Confucian thinkers . It is constituted by four basic ideas in Confucian moral theory : Li,Correcting Names,Yi and Ren. As a normative theory,Confucian virtue jurisprudence views harmony (coordinative harmony and autonomous harmony) as one of the fundamental aims law should achieve by providing an institutional framework that enables and facilitates the development of citizens' virtues .As a positive theory,it explains how law could fulfill its essential function of guiding people' s actions and provides an account of the mechanism through which thick concepts enable this guidance function of law . Based on these ideas,Confucian virtue jurisprudence makes a further claim that,to achieve a well functioning system of Rule of Law,thick legal concepts and the content of law should be internalized by citizens who possess the virtue of Yi .