Abstract

The ability to identify all (and only the) legally salient properties within a complex situation is a subjective trait necessarily possessed by a lawful person. This ability is better explained as a type perception. The paper puts forward an account of the perception of legally salient properties in which perception (i) affords a preliminary ordering of the total information received (ii) while allowing for the formation of a remainder that explains the peripheral legal perception experienced legal practitioners develop over time. After this account of legal perception is in place, the paper considers the relationship between this aspect of subjectivity and complete virtue, in particular, practical wisdom and lawfulness