He repeatedly affirmed the "indestructibility" of "the good that is human life or liberty." But against the transhumanists, those who wanted to get rid of death, he saw the
free acceptance of our "self-conscious mortality" as nothing less than a gift from God and a mark of spiritual grace and maturity.
"The settlement of every question, whether of territory, of sovereignty, of economic arrangement, or of political relationship upon the basis of the
free acceptance of that settlement by the people immediately concerned and not upon the basis of the material interest or advantage of any other nation or people which may desire a different settlement for the sake of its own exterior influence or mastery."
This case note contends that the arguments of unjust enrichment writers, for example about the role of free acceptance in the law, cannot be lightly disregarded.
(24) Similarly, the concept of free acceptance was inapplicable because the Lumbers had never had an opportunity to reject the building work undertaken by Builders.
One of these, he said, required that "the settlement of every question, whether of territory or sovereignty, of economic arrangement, or of political relationship, should be determined upon the basis of the
free acceptance of that settlement by the people immediately concerned and not upon the basis of material interest or advantage of any other nation, or people, which may desire a different settlement, for the sake of its own exterior influence or mastery".
This is true, for instance, when liability is predicated upon the defendant's
free acceptance or knowing receipt, or when a court refuses to impose liability in the absence of a "special relationship." (12)
The fullest showing of that love is in his
free acceptance of suffering and death.
Love in marriage, to be a possibility, needs two things: desire for what is truly good for the other and
free acceptance of the child.
(21) While Birks accepted this explanation in An Introduction to the Law of Restitution, (22) he was later persuaded by arguments of principle and precedent that as a 'defendant-sided' unjust factor,
free acceptance was not an appropriate basis for awarding restitution.