The Goodness of Rights and the Juridical Domain of the Good

This collection of essays, most of which are previously published in distinguished scholarly journals, explores the possible or necessary intersecting points between the concept of ius (the juridical phenomenon, in the broadest sense) and the concept of good. These intersections are first researched from the standpoint of Thomistic juridical realism. The author presents how these intersecting points establish the legal-philosophical framework for an analysis of topics such as the goodness of rights, the law’s goodness, the juridicity of the common good, and the ecclesial juridical goods. The essays then bring into dialogue the Thomistic focal meaning of the concept of ius—namely, rights understood as rei-centric juridical goods—and other foundational accounts of the essence of the juridical phenomenon presented by scholars in the field of legal philosophy, Catholic social teaching, and canon law. Petar Popovic was born in Rijeka, Croatia, in 1983. He is a priest of the Diocese of Porec and Pula in Croatia, ordained in 2015. In 2008 he obtained a master degree in legal studies at the Faculty of Law, University of Rijeka, and in 2019 he successfully completed his doctorate degree at the Faculty of Canon Law, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome (Italy), where he currently works as an adjunct professor. He teaches and writes in the areas of legal philosophy, foundations of the law and rights in the Church, and deontology of canon law.