The central tenet of the classical legal tradition is that the purpose of the law is to promote the common good of a political community — not, as small-L liberals argue, to protect individual rights and liberties. As Vermeule defines it, the “common good” describes the supposedly objective set of political conditions that promote “the happiness and flourishing of the community” — namely “justice, peace, and abundance,” which Vermeule updates for the 21st-century context as “health, safety, and economic security.”
Uh, this actually sounds like wokeness and stuff conservatives love to deride. Could easily be used to justify things like mask mandates (even outside of Covid using Scarlet's reasoning that they would still be justifiable as well as banning crowded non-socially distanced gatherings during flu season), banning hate speech in spite of the First Amendment, etc. Oh and I really doubt that the NRA and Second Amendment-hardliners are going to like this philosophy either.
