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Full-Text Articles in Rule of Law
Law’S Sentiments, Robin West
Law’S Sentiments, Robin West
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
The chapter argues that law and the Rule of Law do not displace moral sentiments, but rather require them, and sometimes produce them. Law gives us some sense of physical security and thereby makes possible the fellow feeling and empathy that are the root of moral action. The chapter seeks to make this claim plausible by looking at fiction that describes various dystopian lawless states, including the hierarchy of the Church, which law has been loath to enter, badly policed neighborhoods, nineteenth century American slavery, and early twentieth century patriarchal marriages. One lesson of much of this fiction is that …
On The Indeterminacy Crisis: Critiquing Critical Dogma, Lawrence B. Solum
On The Indeterminacy Crisis: Critiquing Critical Dogma, Lawrence B. Solum
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
Critical legal scholarship challenges the liberal claim that modern western societies are characterized by "the rule of law." The liberal conception of the rule of law, critical scholars contend, serves to mystify and legitimate the legal system and thereby obscure the real issues behind individual cases as well as the real nature of the legal system. Frequently, the claim that legal rules are indeterminate is the starting point for such a critique of the rule of law. What I call the indeterminacy thesis goes roughly like this: the existing body of legal doctrines-statutes, administrative regulations, and court decisions-permits a judge …