Sir, Grainne Duggan (January 15th) faults William Binchy for saying that our Supreme Court's dismissal of "the natural law" as its touchstone makes it rudderless. I agree, if for a different reason.
The "natural law" concept is fine in theory but rather unhelpful in practice. That was admitted by my political philosophy professor decades ago. Its provisions are what its conceptualises imagine them to be. Our Constitution's framers were wise not to have us tied to it explicitly.
But they did tie us explicitly to "the common good" as our touchstone for law making. While that obtains our law making is far from rudderless. Yours, etc., Sandford Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.