Law Commons^™

A Liberal Theory Of Social Welfare: Fairness, Utility, And The Pareto Principle, Howard F. Chang

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Relativism, Reflective Equilibrium, And Justice, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

THIS PAPER IS THE CO-WINNER OF THE FRED BERGER PRIZE IN PHILOSOPHY OF LAW FOR THE 1999 AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE BEST PUBLISHED PAPER IN THE PREVIOUS TWO YEARS.

The conflict between liberal legal theory and critical legal studies (CLS) is often framed as a matter of whether there is a theory of justice that the law should embody which all rational people could or must accept. In a divided society, the CLS critique of this view is overwhelming: there is no such justice that can command universal assent. But the liberal critique of CLS, that it degenerates into …

Economics And Sociology: The Prospects For An Interdisciplinary Discourse Of Law, Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt

Articles by Maurer Faculty

My purposes in this essay are two-fold. First, I provide some background on the disciplines of economics and sociology as a basis for the discussion at this Symposium and for my own discussion of the potential for an interdisciplinary discourse on law. In this regard, in the first section of the essay I provide a brief history of the relationship between the two disciplines, a brief outline of the basic characteristics of each disciplinary perspective, and a brief discussion of the emerging opportunities for useful exchange between the two disciplines. Second, I examine the prospects that the economic analysis of …

Dividends, Noncontractibility, And Corporate Law, William W. Bratton

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Nest Eggs And Stormy Weather: Law, Culture, And Black Women's Lack Of Wealth, Regina Austin

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Education For Self-Reliance, Responsibility And Hope, John Strassburger

Publications

This is the first in a series of occasional papers about the challenges confronting students and what Ursinus is doing to help them enter adult life.

What's Wrong With Exploitation?, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Abstract: Marx thinks that capitalism is exploitative, and that is a major basis for his objections to it. But what's wrong with exploitation, as Marx sees it? (The paper is exegetical in character: my object is to understand what Marx believed,) The received view, held by Norman Geras, G.A. Cohen, and others, is that Marx thought that capitalism was unjust, because in the crudest sense, capitalists robbed labor of property that was rightfully the workers' because the workers and not the capitalists produced it. This view depends on a Labor Theory of Property (LTP), that property rights are based ultimately …

In Defence Of Exploitation, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

The concept of exploitation is thought to be central to Marx's Critique of capitalism. John Roemer, an analytical (then-) Marxist economist now at Yale, attacked this idea in a series of papers and books in the 1970s-1990s, arguing that Marxists should be concerned with inequality rather than exploitation -- with distribution rather than production, precisely the opposite of what Marx urged in The Critique of the Gotha Progam.

This paper expounds and criticizes Roemer's objections and his alternative inequality based theory of exploitation, while accepting some of his criticisms. It may be viewed as a companion paper to my What's …

A Property-Based Theory Of Security Interests: Taking Debtor's Choices Seriously, Steven L. Harris, Charles W. Mooney Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

"A Nation Of Thieves": Securing Black People's Right To Shop And To Sell In White America, Regina Austin

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

"An Honest Living": Street Vendors, Municipal Regulation, And The Black Public Sphere, Regina Austin

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Paradox Of Ideology, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A standard problem with the objectivity of social scientific theory in particular is that it is either self-referential, in which case it seems to undermine itself as ideology, or self-excepting, which seem pragmatically self-refuting. Using the example of Marx and his theory of ideology, I show how self-referential theories that include themselves in their scope of explanation can be objective. Ideology may be roughly defined as belief distorted by class interest. I show how Marx thought that natural science was informed by class interest but not therefore necessarily ideology. Capitalists have an interest in understanding the natural world (to a …

Functional Explanation And Metaphysical Individualism, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A number of (present or former) analytical Marxists, such as Jon Elster, have argued that functional explanation has almost no place in the social sciences. (Although the discussion is framed in terms of a debate among analytical Marxists, the point is quite general, and Marxism is used for illustrative purposes.) Functional explanation accounts for what is to be explained by reference to its function; thus, sighted organism have eyes because eyes enable them to see. Elster and other critics of functional explanation argue that this pattern of explanation is inconsistent with "methodological individualism," the idea, as they understand it, that …

From Libertarianism To Egalitarianism, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A standard natural rights argument for libertarianism is based on the labor theory of property: the idea that I own my self and my labor, and so if I "mix" my own labor with something previously unowned or to which I have a have a right, I come to own the thing with which I have mixed by labor. This initially intuitively attractive idea is at the basis of the theories of property and the role of government of John Locke and Robert Nozick. Locke saw and Nozick agreed that fairness to others requires a proviso: that I leave "enough …

Controlling Congress: Presidential Influence In Domestic Fiscal Policy, Michael A. Fitts, Robert Inman

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Bargaining And The Division Of Value In Corporate Reorganization, Howard F. Chang, Lucian A. Bebchuk

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Black, Brown, Poor & Poisoned: Minority Grassroots Environmentalism And The Quest For Eco-Justice, Regina Austin, Michael H. Schill

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Limits Of Social Policy, Cary Coglianese

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Developments In Law - Toxic Waste Litigation, Howard F. Chang

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Structure Of Labor Relations, Howard Lesnick

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Establishment Of Bargaining Rights Without An Nlrb Election, Howard Lesnick

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.