Fangchun Li, LL.M

2016 - 2020
LL.B (Bachelor of Laws), Jilin University

2020 - 2023
LL.M (Master of Laws), Shanghai University of Political Science and Law

09/2023 - present
PhD candidate in Law, Tongji University

Political philosophy

Natural law theory

Philosophy of international law

Notions of Justice in Grotius's Natural Law Theory

Hugo Grotius is often regarded in contemporary scholarship as a bridge from the pre-modern to the modern, a characterisation closely connected to his notion of justice. Grotius' notion of justice emerged from his reconstruction of Aristotle's doctrine of justice. Grotius reconstructed Aristotle's doctrine by criticising the reliance on mathematical models (geometrical and arithmetical proportions) and instead distinguishing justice according to its objects (expletrix vs. attributrix). This understanding of the two forms of justice in turn profoundly shaped his theoretical accounts of, for example, punishment, sovereignty, and property. The research project aims to clarify the theoretical framework of Grotius's notion of justice and to examine its influence on the development of theories of justice in the early modern period and the Enlightenment.

Translation:

马克-墨菲[Mark C. Murphy],《法哲學基本原理》[Philosophy of Law: The Fundamentals]，（李方淳 译）[Fangchun Li trans], Angle Publishing/Blackwell Publishing, 2025