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Full-Text Articles in Law
Why Aim Law Toward Human Survival, John William Draper
Why Aim Law Toward Human Survival, John William Draper
Librarian Scholarship at Penn Law
Our legal system is contributing to humanity’s demise by failing to take account of our species’ situation. For example, in some cases law works against life and supports interests such as liberty or profit maximization.
If we do not act, science tells us that humanity bears a significant (and growing) risk of catastrophic failure. The significant risk inherent in the status quo is unacceptable and requires a response. We must act. It is getting hotter. When we decide to act, we need to make the right choice.
There is no better choice. You and all your relatives have rights. The …
The Reliable Revisionist, Caitlyn Schaffer
The Reliable Revisionist, Caitlyn Schaffer
Philosophy: Student Scholarship & Creative Works
The present text explores how the topic of head and heart is much more complicated than one would expect, according to Paul Henne and Walter Sinnot-Armstrong, contributors of Neuroexistentialism. “Does Neuroscience Undermine Morality” aims at figuring out the problem of which moral judgments we can trust, judgments from one’s head (revisionism) or judgments from one’s heart (conservatism). My hypothesis suggests the opposite of the authors, I believe that if you are a revisionist, your first order intuitions are reliable. After setting the framework, I make three main arguments. (A.) If you are able to self-correct then you can identify errors …
Jess Smith And The Design Firm, Gabriel Tenaglia
Jess Smith And The Design Firm, Gabriel Tenaglia
Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics
No abstract provided.
What Makes A Social Order Primitive? In Defense Of Hart’S Take On International Law, David Lefkowitz
What Makes A Social Order Primitive? In Defense Of Hart’S Take On International Law, David Lefkowitz
Philosophy Faculty Publications
The widespread antipathy to Hart's description of international law as a simple or primitive social order, one that lacks a rule of recognition and therefore does not qualify as a legal system, rests on two misunderstandings. First, the absence of a division of labor in identifying, altering, applying, and enforcing law is as much, if not more, central to Hart's understanding of what makes a society primitive as is the absence of any secondary rules at all. Second, it is primarily in terms of the presence of such a division of labor and the implications it has for the ontology …
Of Drones And Justice: A Just War Theory Analysis Of The United States' Drone Campaigns, Ethan A. Wright
Of Drones And Justice: A Just War Theory Analysis Of The United States' Drone Campaigns, Ethan A. Wright
Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics
No abstract provided.
The Reality Of Moral Imperatives In Liberal Religion, Howard Lesnick
The Reality Of Moral Imperatives In Liberal Religion, Howard Lesnick
All Faculty Scholarship
This paper uses a classic one-liner attributed to Dostoyoevski’s Ivan Karamozov, "Without God everything is permitted," to explore some differences between what I term traditional and liberal religion. The expansive connotations and implications of Ivan’s words are grounded in the historic association of wrongfulness and punishment, and in a reaction against the late modern challenge to the inexorability of that association, whether in liberal religion or in secular moral thought. The paper argues that, with its full import understood, Ivan’s claim begs critical questions of the meaning and source of compulsion and choice, and of knowledge and belief regarding the …
Moral Limits Of Dworkin's Theory Of Law And Legal Interpretation, David B. Lyons
Moral Limits Of Dworkin's Theory Of Law And Legal Interpretation, David B. Lyons
Faculty Scholarship
At the foundation of Justice for Hedgehogs is a commitment to moral objectivity – the doctrine that there are right answers to moral questions. This nicely complements Dworkin’s legal theory, which holds that right answers to legal questions depend on right answers to moral questions. Without the doctrine of moral objectivity, Dworkin could not reasonably maintain, as he does, that law provides determinate answers to legal questions.
Competing Conceptions Of Modern Desert: Vengeful, Deontological, And Empirical, Paul H. Robinson
Competing Conceptions Of Modern Desert: Vengeful, Deontological, And Empirical, Paul H. Robinson
All Faculty Scholarship
The dispute over the role desert should play, if any, in assessing criminal liability and punishment has a long and turbulent history. There is some indication that deserved punishment -- referred to variously as desert, just punishment, retributive punishment, or simply doing justice -- may be in ascendance, both in academic debate and in real world institutions. A number of modern sentencing guidelines have adopted it as their distributive principle. Desert is increasingly given deference in the purposes section of state criminal codes, where it can be the guiding principle in the interpretation and application of the code's provisions. Indeed, …
Rethinking "Original Intent", David B. Lyons
Rethinking "Original Intent", David B. Lyons
Faculty Scholarship
Although Dred Scott v. Sandford is one of the Supreme Court's most controversial decisions, it is not often taught or read. But its approach to constitutional interpretation is by no means outdated, and its historical importance has not diminished. So it seems a good example to consider.
Reflections On Identity, Diversity And Morality, Deborah W. Post
Reflections On Identity, Diversity And Morality, Deborah W. Post
Scholarly Works
The author reflects over events in her life that helped her define herself and her ethical identity, a black woman teacher.
The Connection Between Law And Morality: Comments On Dworkin, David B. Lyons
The Connection Between Law And Morality: Comments On Dworkin, David B. Lyons
Faculty Scholarship
Our discussions yesterday seemed haunted by a contrast--never quite formulated--between Natural Law and Legal Positivism. The standard interpretation turns on the idea of a "necessary connection" between law and morality. Positivism has often been understood to hold, and Natural Law to deny, that there can be unjust laws.
The Nature Of The Contract Argument, David B. Lyons
The Nature Of The Contract Argument, David B. Lyons
Faculty Scholarship
As truth is the first virtue of belief, so justice is of social institutions. That is John Rawls's view, and it seems true, at any rate, of the law. Official acts, laws, and legal arrangements generally are characterized as just or unjust, while other moral categories are much less frequently invoked. Justice seems inseparable from good law. It is therefore striking and important that justice has recently been regarded by prominent legal theorists as rationally disreputable--as, in Kelsen's words, "an irrational idea." Many divergent conceptions of social justice have been propounded, and it is held that there is no rational …