Law Commons^™

Introductory Remarks: Contract Law And Morality, Nathan B. Oman

Nathan B. Oman

No abstract provided.

The Moral Impossibility Of Contract, Peter A. Alces

Peter A. Alces

No abstract provided.

What Is The Government's Role In Promoting Morals - Seriously, G. Marcus Cole

G. Marcus Cole

In thinking about the government's proper role in promoting morals, it is helpful first to understand the nature of the disagreement. Part I of this Essay examines what is commonly meant by-as the great Lon Fuller described it-the "morality of law."' Following Professor Fuller's framework, this Essay distinguishes between two very different moralities of law: the "morality of duty" and the "morality of aspiration." The morality of duty consists of the basic proscriptions-against murder or theft, for example-required by any governmental authority. The morality of aspiration, however, is a different matter altogether. It comprises the rules associated with promoting virtue. …

On The Nature Of Norms: Biology, Morality, And The Disruption Of Order, Owen D. Jones

Owen Jones

This essay discusses the legal implications of bio-behavioral underpinnings to norms, morality, and economic order. It first discusses the recent book "The Great Disruption: Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order," in which Francis Fukuyama explores the importance of evolved human nature to the reconstruction of social order and a thriving economy. It then addresses the extent to which we can usefully view law-relevant norms as products of evolutionary - as well as economic - processes.

Trademark Morality, Mark Bartholomew

Mark Bartholomew

This Article challenges the modern rationale for trademark rights. According to both judges and legal scholars, what matters in adjudicating trademark cases are the economic consequences, particularly for consumers, of a defendant’s use of a mark, not the use’s morality. Nevertheless, under this utilitarian facade, there are also at work judicial assessments of highly charged questions of right and wrong. Recent findings in the field of moral psychology demonstrate the influence of particular moral triggers in all areas of human decisionmaking, often operating without conscious awareness. These triggers influence judges deciding trademark disputes. A desire to punish bad actors, particularly …

The Legal Ethics Of The Two Kingdoms, Thomas L. Shaffer

Thomas L. Shaffer

No abstract provided.

On Living One Way In Town And Another Way At Home, Thomas L. Shaffer

Thomas L. Shaffer

No abstract provided.

Balzacian Legality, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Thomas Carbonneau

The study of law and literature is an area of growing interest to legal scholars in the United States. Honore de Balzac incorporated in his works a panoramic view of the social reality of nineteenth century France. In this context, the fidelity of Balzac's plots and characters to their external models has been well-documented in a number of fields, including sociology, commerce, and finance. In addition to this penchant for realism, however, Balzac laced his novels with an equally evident moral content. This commitment to accuracy and morality also influenced Balzac's novelistic treatment of the law and lawyers. Balzac's work …

Balzacian Legality: A Proposal For Natural Law Juridicial Standards Of Legality, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Thomas Carbonneau

The task of the present article is twofold. First, it represents an attempt to make an original English language contribution to the continuing interdisciplinary inquiry, begun in France, into the presence of law in Balzac's The Human Comedy, by focusing upon themes and novels that have not been the subject of previous individual study. Second, it seeks to contribute to an area of growing interest to legal scholars in the United States – the study of law and literature – by providing an example of the insights one French novelist with legal training and experience had into questions that forever …

Genocide And The Eroticization Of Death: Law, Violence, And Moral Purity, Tawia Baidoe Ansah

Tawia B. Ansah

In this article, I ask: What is the relationship between law and morality in response to mass violence and suffering abroad? How does law shape and determine our moral response to mass death and suffering? We repose in the law itself a desire to define the moral and the ethical parameters of legal-political action. Thus, when faced with mass violence and suffering abroad, law functions as a proxy for morality. The legal prohibition under the Genocide Convention defines morality, or cabins the variety of moral responses into a single and universally applicable ethical-legal norm of response to genocide. The moral …

War: Rhetoric And Norm-Creation In Response To Terror, Tawia Baidoe Ansah

Tawia B. Ansah

Everything is very simple in war," said Carl von Clausewitz, "but the simplest thing is difficult." This essay will suggest that the resort to the language of war, as "natural" and "starkly simple" as it is, nevertheless has a profound impact on how the law's intervention is shaped, or how the laws governing the transnational use of force are interpreted to accommodate a "war" on terrorism. I argue that although "war" is absent from the principal international legal instruments by which states are guided (and obligated) in their relations with other states, the concepts suppressed by this elision have an …

A Terrible Purity: International Law, Morality, Religion, Exclusion, Tawia Ansah

Tawia B. Ansah

Explores the separations, constructions, & barriers between law & religion from both a secular & religious perspective. Maintaining boundaries between law & religion often results in the construction of the repudiated religious Other. Creation of a public/private divide is based on an exclusion that functions like what psychoanalysts call abjection. However, the abject (religion) is a latent source of creativity that remains outside the domain of the law but weakens it as the primary site of authority. Removing religion from the sidelines of public juridical dialogue reduces the constraining power of discourse & widens the states discretion. The failure of …

Can The West Learn From The Rest?' The Chinese Legal Order's Hybrid Modernity, Nicholas Howson

Nicholas Howson

I am asked to present on the "shortcomings of the Western model of legality based on a professionalized, individualistic and highly formalistic approach to justice" as a way to understanding if "the West can develop today a form of legality which is relational rather than based on litigation as a zero sum game, learning from face to face social organizations in which individuals understand the law" - presumably in the context of the imperial and modem Chinese legal systems which I know best as a scholar and have lived for many years as a resident of the modem identity of …

The Five Days In June When Values Died In American Law, Bruce Ledewitz

Bruce Ledewitz

Response To Nicholas Boyle, O. Carter Snead

O. Carter Snead

Response to Nicholas Boyle’s talk “God, Sex, and America: From Decline of the Common Morality to the Emergence of a Global Ethical Life” at The Catholic University of America Center for Law, Philosophy and Culture’s Symposium “A Common Morality for the Global Age: In Gratitude for What We Are Given.”

The Future Of Governmental Ethics: Law And Morality, Jon L. Mills

Jon L. Mills

Based on a speech presented at the 16th International Symposium on Economic Crime, Cambridge University, England September 13-19, 1998.

Nsfw: An Empirical Study Of Scandalous Trademarks, Megan M. Carpenter

Megan M Carpenter

This project is an empirical analysis of trademarks that have received rejections based on the judgment that they are “scandalous." It is the first of its kind. The Lanham Act bars registration for trademarks that are “scandalous” and “immoral.” While much has been written on the morality provisions in the Lanham Act generally, this piece is the first scholarly project that engages an empirical analysis of 2(a) rejections based on scandalousness; it contains a look behind the scenes at how the morality provisions are applied throughout the trademark registration process. We study which marks are being rejected, what evidence is …

Infusing The Meaning Of “Cruel And Unusual” Through The Digital Public Sphere: How The Internet Can Change The Debate On The Morality Of Capital Punishment, Adam A. Marshall

Adam A Marshall

In this paper, I suggest new strategies that abolitionists should adopt in the debate over the morality of the death penalty. As the Eighth Amendment “draw[s] its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society”, advocates for abolishing the death penalty should develop strategies based on the moral theories of Adam Smith to leverage the power of the internet and ensure all citizens feel the effects of the death penalty in order to stimulate debate over its morality. By examining these concepts through the case of Troy Davis, we can see how the …

Fundamental Rights, Moral Law, And The Legal Defense Of Life In A Constitutional Democracy, Martin Rhonheimer, Paolo G. Carozza

Paolo G. Carozza

Article by Martin Rhonheimer, translated by Paolo G. Carozza.

The Practice Of Law As Moral Discourse, Thomas Shaffer

Thomas L. Shaffer

No abstract provided.

Less Suffering When You're Warned: A Response To Professor Lewis, Thomas L. Shaffer

Thomas L. Shaffer

No abstract provided.

"Technical" Defenses: Ethics, Morals, And The Lawyer As Friend, Thomas L. Shaffer, Robert F. Cochran Jr.

Thomas L. Shaffer

This essay examines the question of lawyer-client counseling on the issue of raising "technical" defenses, such as statutes of limitations. The authors challenge the prevailing notion of American lawyers that technical defenses raise no moral issue worthy of dialogue between lawyers and clients. Looking at the history of legal ethics and modern treatment in European law, they suggest that questions of limitations do raise moral issues. They go on to explore how those moral issues ought to be discussed and decided between lawyers and clients, using the framework of lawyers as godfathers, hired guns, gurus, and friends that they laid …

Henry Knox And The Moral Theology Of Law Firms, Thomas L. Shaffer

Thomas L. Shaffer

No abstract provided.

The Moral Theology Of Atticus Finch, Thomas L. Shaffer

Thomas L. Shaffer

No abstract provided.

Moral Theology In Legal Ethics, Thomas L. Shaffer

Thomas L. Shaffer

No abstract provided.

The Profession As A Moral Teacher, Thomas L. Shaffer

Thomas L. Shaffer

No abstract provided.

Forming An Agenda - Ethics And Legal Ethics, Robert E. Rodes

Robert Rodes

The law profession is unique in the scope of the mandate it gives those within it to intervene in other people's affairs. As a result of this unique power of intervention, lawyers encounter a number of unique problems. This paper elucidates upon, and applies, the moral standards and intuitions to be used in approaching these problems. It argues that we should form our consciences in dialogue with our clients and that once they are formed we must follow them and limit our representation accordingly. If lawyer and client cannot agree on an agenda with which both are comfortable, the lawyer …

Prophecy And Casuistry: Abortion, Torture And Moral Discourse, M. Kaveny

M. Cathleen Kaveny

No abstract provided.

The New Natural Law Theory: A Reply To Jean Porter, Gerard V. Bradley, Robert George

Gerard V. Bradley

No abstract provided.

Response To Hittinger, Gerard V. Bradley

Gerard V. Bradley

No abstract provided.