Joseph Raz

Taipei, June 21 (CNA) Joseph Raz, a leading thinker, has been named recipient of the 2018 Tang Prize in rule of law for his groundbreaking contributions to the field, which have helped to deepen understanding of the very nature of law, legal reasoning and the relationship among law, morality and freedom.

Lin Tzu-yi (林子儀), director and distinguished research fellow of Institute Jurisprudence, Academia Sinica, made the announcement Thursday at a press conference in Taipei in his capacity as convener of the Tang Prize selection committee.

The committee said in its citation that Raz is "one of the foremost legal philosophers of our time and a moral and political theorist of major influence" who has made profound contributions to the three branches of philosophy -- legal, moral and political philosophy -- in an integrated and comprehensive manner.

Born in the Palestine Mandate in 1939, the 79-year-old has spent most of his career as a professor of philosophy of law at Balliol College in the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom from 1985-2006.

He is now the Thomas M. Macioce professor of law at Columbia Law School in the United States and a research professor of law at King's College London in the U.K.

(By Shih Hsiu-chuan)
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