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Ignorance Of Law Is An Excuse - But Only For The Virtuous, Dan M. Kahan
Ignorance Of Law Is An Excuse - But Only For The Virtuous, Dan M. Kahan
Michigan Law Review
It's axiomatic that "ignorance of the law is no excuse." My aim in this essay is to examine what the "mistake of law doctrine" reveals about the relationship between criminal law and morality in general and about the law's understanding of moral responsibility in particular. The conventional understanding of the mistake of law doctrine rests on two premises, which are encapsulated in the Holmesian epigrams with which I've started this essay. The first is liberal positivism. As a descriptive claim, liberal positivism holds that the content of the law can be identified without reference to morality: one needn't be a …
Recovery Of Money Paid Under Mistake Of Law, William P. Rogers
Recovery Of Money Paid Under Mistake Of Law, William P. Rogers
Michigan Law Review
Few questions which come before the courts seem more difficult to settle than those growing out of the maxim, ignorantia juris non excusat. The fact that the most recent decisions bearing on the subject are as much at variance and as conflicting as those rendered more than a century ago, is the excuse, if not a justification, for this article. It is proposed, however, to examine only that phase of the subject found in this inquiry: "Can one recover from another money paid under mistake of law to which the payee is not entitled, and which he can not in …