Persons are the point of law; law is their servant.

The Paradox of Persons Forty Years After Roe

by Gerard V. Bradley

The Roe Court’s suppression of a foundational question—who is the law for—means that the decision could be overturned by any of several feticide cases that could reach the current Court
Abortion is the great civil rights issue of our time because it raises—uniquely and compellingly—every society’s foundational question about law and justice:Who is the law for? For whose benefit do we plan, build, and apply this vast apparatus we call the “rule of law”?

The question is foundational because it is prior, in status and importance, to the question: What shall the law be? It is foundational because answering it correctly is essential to justice. Anyone can see that even the most refined arrangement of legal rights and duties counts for naught if the strong can manipulate the foundational question, and deny the benefits of law to those they wish to exploit.

Jurists as far back as Justinian in the sixth century correctly saw that law is forpersons, not the other way around. Persons are the point of law; law is their servant.

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