Samenvatting

During his pontificate pope Benedict XVI held five important speeches on democracy and law. In a new study, edited by Marta Cartabia and Andrea Simonici, it is argued that these speeches constitute a papal legal philosophy on the foundation of law. This book review explores that claim. Did emeritus pope Benedict XVI have a distinctive legal philosophy? May be, but the material covered in the book might not be enough to fully support the status of pope Benedict XVI as a legal philosopher. What is needed is a more integral study that includes other papal statements on the principles of law (for instance to the Roman Rota) on the one hand, and the work of the theologian Joseph cardinal Ratzinger before he became pope Benedict XVI on the other hand.