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Full-Text Articles in Law

Pagans, Christians, And Student Protesters, Stanley Fish Aug 2019

Pagans, Christians, And Student Protesters, Stanley Fish

Stanley Fish

Stanley Fish’s contribution to the 2019 Editors’ Symposium: Pagans and Christians in the City.


Legal Personhood For Artificial Intelligence, Tyler Jaynes Jun 2019

Legal Personhood For Artificial Intelligence, Tyler Jaynes

Tyler Jaynes

The concept of artificial intelligence is not new nor is the notion that it should be granted legal protections given its influence on human activity. What is new, on a relative scale, is the notion that artificial intelligence can possess citizenship—a concept reserved only for humans, as it presupposes the idea of possessing civil duties and protections. Where there are several decades’ worth of writing on the concept of the legal status of computational artificial artefacts in the USA and elsewhere, it is surprising that law makers internationally have come to a standstill to protect our silicon brainchildren. In this …


Guantánamo Bodies: Law, Media, And Biopower, Cary Federman, Dave Holmes Apr 2019

Guantánamo Bodies: Law, Media, And Biopower, Cary Federman, Dave Holmes

Cary Federman

The idea of the Guantánamo detainee as a Muselmann, the lowest order of concentration camp inmates, contains within it important implications for the new understanding of sovereignty in the era of Guantánamo, in an age of exception. The purpose of this article is to explain the status of those who are detained at Guantánamo Bay. Stated broadly, in assessing that status, we will emphasize the connection between the altered meaning of sovereignty that has accompanied the placing of prisoners in an American penal colony in Cuba and the biopolitical status of the prisoners who reside there. More particularly, we …


The Declaration Of Independence And Immigration In The United States Of America, Kenneth M. White Mar 2019

The Declaration Of Independence And Immigration In The United States Of America, Kenneth M. White

Kenneth White

The United States has always been a nation of immigrants, and immigration policy has always been controversial. The history of immigration in the United States is contrasted in this article with a normative standard of naturalization (immigration policy) based on the Declaration of Independence. The current immigration debate fits within a historical pattern that pits an unrestricted right of immigration (the left) against exclusive, provincial politics (the right). Both sides are simultaneously correct and incorrect. A moderate policy on immigration is possible if the debate in the United States gets an infusion of what Thomas Paine called "common sense."


The Architecture Of Law: Building Law In The Classical Tradition, Brian M. Mccall May 2018

The Architecture Of Law: Building Law In The Classical Tradition, Brian M. Mccall

Brian M McCall

The Architecture of Law explores the metaphor of law as an architectural building project, with eternal law as the foundation, natural law as the frame, divine law as the guidance provided by the architect, and human law as the provider of the defining details and ornamentation. Classical jurisprudence is presented as a synthesis of the work of the greatest minds of antiquity and the medieval period, including Cicero, Artistotle, Gratian, Augustine, and Aquinas; the significant texts of each receive detailed exposition in these pages.
Along with McCall’s development of the architectural image, he raises a question that becomes a running …


The Property Question.Pdf, William A. Edmundson Apr 2018

The Property Question.Pdf, William A. Edmundson

William A. Edmundson

The “property question” is the constitutional question whether a society’s basic resources are to be publicly or privately owned; that is, whether these basic resources are to be available to private owners, perhaps subject to tax and regulation, or whether instead they are to be retained in joint public ownership, and managed by democratic processes.  James Madison’s approach represents a case in which prior holdings are taken for granted, and the property question itself is kept off of the political agenda.  By contrast, John Rawls approach abstracts from any actual pattern of holdings, while putting the property question on the …


The Property Question.Pdf, William A. Edmundson Dec 2017

The Property Question.Pdf, William A. Edmundson

William A. Edmundson

for presentation at the Property and Political Economy Conference at the Smith Institute,
Chapman University, April 20-21, 2018
The “property question” is the constitutional question whether a society’s basic resources are
to be publicly or privately owned; that is, whether these basic resources are to be available to
private owners, perhaps subject to tax and regulation, or whether instead they are to be
retained in joint public ownership, and managed by democratic processes. James Madison’s
approach represents a case in which prior holdings are taken for granted, and the property
question itself is kept off of the political agenda. By …


Artificial Intelligence And Role-Reversible Judgment, Stephen E. Henderson, Kiel Brennan-Marquez Dec 2017

Artificial Intelligence And Role-Reversible Judgment, Stephen E. Henderson, Kiel Brennan-Marquez

Stephen E Henderson

As intelligent machines begin more generally outperforming human experts, why should humans remain ‘in the loop’ of decision-making?  One common answer focuses on outcomes: relying on intuition and experience, humans are capable of identifying interpretive errors—sometimes disastrous errors—that elude machines.  Though plausible today, this argument will wear thin as technology evolves.

Here, we seek out sturdier ground: a defense of human judgment that focuses on the normative integrity of decision-making.  Specifically, we propose an account of democratic equality as ‘role-reversibility.’  In a democracy, those tasked with making decisions should be susceptible, reciprocally, to the impact of decisions; there ought to …


Fortifying The Self-Defense Justification Of Punishment, Zac Cogley Sep 2017

Fortifying The Self-Defense Justification Of Punishment, Zac Cogley

Zac Cogley

David Boonin has recently advanced several challenges to the self-defense justification of punishment. Boonin argues that the self-defense justification of punishment justifies punishing the innocent, justifies disproportionate punishment, cannot account for mitigating excuses, and does not justify intentionally harming offenders as we do when we punish them. In this paper, I argue that the self-defense justification, suitably understood, can avoid all of these problems. To help demonstrate the self-defense theory’s attraction, I also develop some contrasts between the self-defense justification, Warren Quinn’s better known ‘auto-retaliator’ argument, and desert-based justifications of punishment. In sum, I show that the self-defense justification of …


Finding The Sovereign In Sovereign Immunity: Lessons From Bodin, Hobbes, And Rousseau, David Schraub Dec 2016

Finding The Sovereign In Sovereign Immunity: Lessons From Bodin, Hobbes, And Rousseau, David Schraub

David Schraub

The doctrine of “sovereign immunity” holds that the U.S. government cannot be sued without its consent. This is not found in the Constitution’s text; it is justified on philosophical grounds as inherent to being a sovereign state: a sovereign must be able to issue commands free from constraint. The sources of this understanding of sovereignty—Hobbes, Bodin, and others—are, in turn, condemned by opponents of sovereign immunity as absolutists whose doctrines are incompatible with limited, constitutional government. This debate, and thus the usual conception of sovereign immunity, rests on a fundamental mistake. Hobbes and his peers were careful to avoid the …


Daredevil: Legal (And Moral?) Vigilante, Stephen E. Henderson Dec 2016

Daredevil: Legal (And Moral?) Vigilante, Stephen E. Henderson

Stephen E Henderson

In 1964, the comic world was introduced to its first physically disabled practicing attorney: Matt Murdock. Initially a proud graduate of "State College" and later more impressively pedigreed as a graduate of either Columbia or Harvard Law, Murdock supplemented his day job as attorney with a side of vigilante justice as Daredevil.

In 2003, Murdock became the only attorney superhero to appear as the title character in a movie. A truly awful movie, yes, but a movie all the same. And then in 2015, thanks to the talents of Drew Goddard, Murdock became the star of a terrific television series. …


Why Is It Good To Stop At A Red Light_ The Basis Of Authority And Obligation, Brian M. Mccall Dec 2015

Why Is It Good To Stop At A Red Light_ The Basis Of Authority And Obligation, Brian M. Mccall

Brian M McCall

Throughout history, some have questioned whether the authority exercised by some over others is consistent with human nature.  Is it possible for a law made by one human being to bind the conscience of another, or is such a claim merely tyranny?  If such a power to bind to laws made by humans is justified, what is its scope?  The answers to these related questions explored in this Article are both descriptive and normative.  This Article explains the nature of authority and the extent of the obligation to obey the law as well as explains how the architecture of natural …


El Nuevo Pacto Protestante: La Influencia De La Teología Protestante En El Derecho De Bienes Y Contratos, Brian M. Mccall Dec 2015

El Nuevo Pacto Protestante: La Influencia De La Teología Protestante En El Derecho De Bienes Y Contratos, Brian M. Mccall

Brian M McCall

Es imposible disociar la moral (o la ética) de la doctrina teológica. Como Richard Weaver explicó en el pasado siglo, las ideas tienen consecuencias.
Por lo tanto, un cambio de doctrina teológica irá inevitablemente acompañado por un cambio en las normas que gobiernan la conducta. Dado que la ley humana es relativa a los usos y costumbres de la comunidad para la cual se dicta y se desarrolla a la luz de aquéllos, tales cambios terminarán abriéndose paso en las leyes.
Después de quinientos años, las nuevas doctrinas del protestantismo han producido sus efectos sobre la moral y el derecho. …


La Necesidad De Una Metafísica Realista, Juan Carlos Riofrío Martínez-Villalba Oct 2015

La Necesidad De Una Metafísica Realista, Juan Carlos Riofrío Martínez-Villalba

Juan Carlos Riofrío Martínez-Villalba

No abstract provided.


The Intelligibility Of Extralegal State Action: A General Lesson For Debates On Public Emergencies And Legality, François Tanguay-Renaud Oct 2015

The Intelligibility Of Extralegal State Action: A General Lesson For Debates On Public Emergencies And Legality, François Tanguay-Renaud

François Tanguay-Renaud

Some legal theorists deny that states can conceivably act extralegally in the sense of acting contrary to domestic law. This position finds its most robust articulation in the writings of Hans Kelsen and has more recently been taken up by David Dyzenhaus in the context of his work on emergencies and legality. This paper seeks to demystify their arguments and ultimately contend that we can intelligibly speak of the state as a legal wrongdoer or a legally unauthorized actor.


Decoding "Never Again", Sherry F. Colb Jun 2015

Decoding "Never Again", Sherry F. Colb

Sherry Colb

This article, Decoding “Never Again,” narrates its author’s experience as a child of two Holocaust survivors, one of whom participated in rescuing thousands of his fellow Jews during the war. Colb meditates on this legacy and concludes that her understanding of it has played an important role in inspiring her scholarship about (and ethical commitment to) animal rights. She examines and analyzes the ways in which analogies between the Holocaust and anything else can trigger people’s anger and offense, and she then draws a distinction between occasions when offense is an appropriate response to such analogies and when it need …


Allowing Patients To Waive The Right To Sue For Medical Malpractice: A Response To Thaler And Sunstein, Tom Baker, Timothy D. Lytton Jun 2015

Allowing Patients To Waive The Right To Sue For Medical Malpractice: A Response To Thaler And Sunstein, Tom Baker, Timothy D. Lytton

Timothy D. Lytton

This essay critically evaluates Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein’s proposal to allow patients to prospectively waive their rights to bring a malpractice claim, presented in their recent, much acclaimed book, Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness. We show that the behavioral insights that undergird Nudge do not support the waiver proposal. In addition, we demonstrate that Thaler and Sunstein have not provided a persuasive cost-benefit justification for the proposal. Finally, we argue that their liberty-based defense of waivers rests on misleading analogies and polemical rhetoric that ignore the liberty and other interests served by patients’ tort law rights. …


Ambedkar And Constituent Assembly, Vivek Kumar Srivastava Dr. Apr 2015

Ambedkar And Constituent Assembly, Vivek Kumar Srivastava Dr.

Vivek Kumar Srivastava Dr.

Ambedkar was instrumental in drafting of India constitution but he had his own vision for the constitution.


Carl Cohen’S ‘Kind’ Arguments For Animal Rights And Against Human Rights, Nathan Nobis Mar 2015

Carl Cohen’S ‘Kind’ Arguments For Animal Rights And Against Human Rights, Nathan Nobis

Nathan M. Nobis, PhD

Carl Cohen’s arguments against animal rights are shown to be unsound. His strategy entails that animals have rights, that humans do not, the negations of those conclusions, and other false and inconsistent implications. His main premise seems to imply that one can fail all tests and assignments in a class and yet easily pass if one’s peers are passing and that one can become a convicted criminal merely by setting foot in a prison. However, since his moral principles imply that nearly all exploitive uses of animals are wrong anyway, foes of animal rights are advised to seek philosophical consolations …


Deception In Morality And Law, Larry Alexander, Emily Sherwin Feb 2015

Deception In Morality And Law, Larry Alexander, Emily Sherwin

Emily L Sherwin

No abstract provided.


Desert, Responsibility, And Justification, Manuel R. Vargas Jan 2015

Desert, Responsibility, And Justification, Manuel R. Vargas

Manuel Vargas

The idea of moral responsibility is central to a wide range of our moral, social, and legal practices. It underpins our basic notion of culpability. Yet the idea of moral responsibility is regarded with considerable skepticism by researchers and scholars in psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and the law. So, it is a social practice in want of justification.

This article defends the picture of moral responsibility first presented in BUILDING BETTER BEINGS: A THEORY OF MORAL RESPONSIBILITY (Oxford University Press, 2013). On that account, the normative basis for moral responsibility depends on the effects that participation in the practice has upon …


Virtue Ethics, Rule Of Law, And Self-Restriction, Stephen C. Angle Dec 2014

Virtue Ethics, Rule Of Law, And Self-Restriction, Stephen C. Angle

Stephen C. Angle

It is a provocative coincidence that 1958 saw the publication of both Elizabeth Anscombe’s “Modern Moral Philosophy,” an essay widely seen as initiating the revival of Western philosophical interest in virtue ethics, and the “Manifesto to the World’s People on Behalf of Chinese Culture,” a jointly-authored argument that Confucianism was still alive and had much to offer to the world. A great deal of research and debate has flowed from each of these sources over the last half-century, but so far there has been very little dialogue between modern Western virtue ethics and modern Confucianism.1 Scholars of ancient Confucianism …


Filosofía De La Responsabilidad Extracontractual: Un Llamado Al Debate, Jorge Luis Fabra Dec 2014

Filosofía De La Responsabilidad Extracontractual: Un Llamado Al Debate, Jorge Luis Fabra

Jorge Luis Fabra Zamora

Recientemente se ha comenzado a hablar con fuerza de la “filosofía de la responsabilidad extracontractual” en Latinoamérica. La publicación de varias compilaciones de artículos, la traducción de uno de los textos fundacionales del área, y la publicación del primer libro con una contribución original al debate en español han hecho que este estudio filosófico se consolide un cuerpo académico por mérito propio. Sin embargo, a pesar de estos logros, la idea de una “filosofía de la responsabilidad extracontractual” puede sonar extraña al jurista práctico. Como señala Zipursky, desde la perspectiva de los jueces o abogados, la responsabilidad extracontractual –que se …


The New Bureaucracies Of Virtue: Introduction, Marie-Andree Jacob, Annelise Riles Dec 2014

The New Bureaucracies Of Virtue: Introduction, Marie-Andree Jacob, Annelise Riles

Annelise Riles

No abstract provided.


The Moral Emotions Of The Criminal Law, Stephen P. Garvey Dec 2014

The Moral Emotions Of The Criminal Law, Stephen P. Garvey

Stephen P. Garvey

Imagine you have committed a crime. You might experience any number of emotional responses to what you've done, ranging from self-satisfaction to self-disgust. But however you do feel, how should you feel? The question seems especially appropriate for a conference honoring Professor Herbert Morris and celebrating his work, for no one has shed light more on the moral emotions of the criminal law. The line of thought that follows owes Professor Morris a large and obvious debt. So, once again, how should you feel when you have committed a criminal wrong? "Guilty" comes immediately to mind. But guilt is not …


'Gardens Of Justice': Australian Feminist Law Journal, 2013, Volume 39, Matilda Arvidsson, Leila Brännström, Merima Bruncevic, Leif Dahlberg Feb 2014

'Gardens Of Justice': Australian Feminist Law Journal, 2013, Volume 39, Matilda Arvidsson, Leila Brännström, Merima Bruncevic, Leif Dahlberg

Matilda Arvidsson

FOREWARD: GARDENS OF JUSTICE

Matilda Arvidsson, Merima Bruncevic, Leila Brannstrom, Leif Dahlberg

Our Gardens of Justice special themed issue of the Australian Feminist Law Journal grew out of the 2012 Critical Legal Conference in Stockholm and its theme of Gardens of Justice, a conference organised by Matilda Arvidsson, Merima Bruncevic, Leila Brannstrom and Leif Dahlberg. We issued a Call for Papers early in 2013 in which several conference theme questions were repeated. We called for papers devoted to thinking about law and justice as a physical as well as a social environment. The theme suggested a plurality of justice gardens …


Four Challenges Confronting A Moral Conception Of Universal Human Rights, Eric Blumenson Jan 2014

Four Challenges Confronting A Moral Conception Of Universal Human Rights, Eric Blumenson

Eric Blumenson

This Essay describes some fundamental debates concerning the nature and possibility of universal human rights, conceived as a species of justice rather than law. It identifies four claims entailed by such rights and some significant problems each claim confronts. The designation “universal human rights” explicitly asserts three of them: paradigmatic human rights purport to be (1) universal, in that their protections and obligations bind every society, regardless of its laws and mores; (2) human, in that the rights belong equally to every person by virtue of one’s humanity, regardless of character, social standing, disabilities, or other individual attributes; and (3) …


Beyond The National Resource Privilege: Towards An International Court Of The Environment, Fabian Schuppert Jan 2014

Beyond The National Resource Privilege: Towards An International Court Of The Environment, Fabian Schuppert

Fabian Schuppert

No abstract provided.


Entender Los Males Económicos Modernos A La Luz De La Doctrina Social Católica, Brian M. Mccall Dec 2013

Entender Los Males Económicos Modernos A La Luz De La Doctrina Social Católica, Brian M. Mccall

Brian M McCall

In a general sense, St. Thomas Aquinas predicted the paralysis and chaos of the financial and economic systems in America and Europe which occurred in 2008, when he predicted that in a society where unjust exchanges dominate, eventually all exchanges will cease. St. Thomas also points out that although human law cannot prohibit all injustice, society cannot escape the consequences of transgressing the divine law which leaves “nothing unpunished.” Thus, at least part of the explanation for that crisis whose effects remain with us today lies in continuous violations of natural justice by our economic system. Neither one product nor …


Entender Los Males Economómicos Modernos A La Luz De La Doctrina Social Cátolica (Understanding Modern Economic Woes In Light Of Catholic Social Doctrine), Brian M. Mccall Dec 2013

Entender Los Males Economómicos Modernos A La Luz De La Doctrina Social Cátolica (Understanding Modern Economic Woes In Light Of Catholic Social Doctrine), Brian M. Mccall

Brian M McCall

En sentido general, Santo Tomás Aquino predijo la parálisis y el caos del sistema financiero económico en Estados Unidos y Europa que ocurrió en 2008, cuando predijo que en una sociedad donde los intercambios injustos dominan, eventualmente todos los intercambios podrán cesar. Santo Tomás también señala que aunque la ley humana no pueda prohibir todas las injusticias, la sociedad no puede escapar de las consecuencias de trasgredir la ley divina que no deja nada en la impunidad. Así, al menos una parte de la explicación para esta crisis cuyos efectos permanecen con nosotros en la actualidad se encuentra en las …