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Social and Behavioral Sciences

University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School

Philosophy

Articles 1 - 29 of 29

Full-Text Articles in Law

The Inevitability And Ubiquity Of Cycling In All Feasible Legal Regimes: A Formal Proof, Leo Katz, Alvaro Sandroni Jun 2017

The Inevitability And Ubiquity Of Cycling In All Feasible Legal Regimes: A Formal Proof, Leo Katz, Alvaro Sandroni

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Intransitive choices, or cycling, are generally held to be the mark of irrationality. When a set of rules engenders such choices, it is usually held to be irrational and in need of reform. In this article, we prove a series of theorems, demonstrating that all feasible legal regimes are going to be rife with cycling. Our first result, the legal cycling theorem, shows that unless a legal system meets some extremely restrictive conditions, it will lead to cycling. The discussion that follows, along with our second result, the combination theorem, shows exactly why these conditions are almost impossible to meet. …


What Must We Hide: The Ethics Of Privacy And The Ethos Of Disclosure, Anita L. Allen Jan 2012

What Must We Hide: The Ethics Of Privacy And The Ethos Of Disclosure, Anita L. Allen

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No abstract provided.


Immigration, Association, And The Family, Matthew J. Lister Jul 2010

Immigration, Association, And The Family, Matthew J. Lister

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In this paper I provide a philosophical analysis of family-based immigration. This type of immigration is of great importance, yet has received relatively little attention from philosophers and others doing normative work on immigration. As family-based immigration poses significant challenges for those seeking a comprehensive normative account of the limits of discretion that states should have in setting their own immigration policies, it is a topic that must be dealt with if we are to have a comprehensive account. In what follows I use the idea of freedom of association to show what is distinctive about family-based immigration and why …


The Perils Of Forgetting Fairness, Michael B. Dorff, Kimberly Kessler Ferzan Jan 2009

The Perils Of Forgetting Fairness, Michael B. Dorff, Kimberly Kessler Ferzan

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No abstract provided.


Liability Insurance, Moral Luck, And Auto Accidents, Tom Baker Jan 2008

Liability Insurance, Moral Luck, And Auto Accidents, Tom Baker

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Beginning with the seminal work by Williams and Nagel, moral philosophers have used auto accident hypotheticals to illustrate the phenomenon of moral luck. Moral luck occurs in the hypotheticals because (and to the extent that) two equally careless drivers are assessed differently because only one of them caused an accident. This article considers whether these philosophical discussions might contribute to the public policy debate over compensation for auto accidents. Using liability and insurance practices in the United States as an illustrative example, the article explains that auto liability insurance substantially mitigates moral luck and argues that, as a result, the …


The Rhetoric Of Anti-Relativism In A Culture Of Certainty, Howard Lesnick Jan 2007

The Rhetoric Of Anti-Relativism In A Culture Of Certainty, Howard Lesnick

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No abstract provided.


A Contractarian Argument Against The Death Penalty, Claire Oakes Finkelstein Oct 2006

A Contractarian Argument Against The Death Penalty, Claire Oakes Finkelstein

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Opponents of the death penalty typically base their opposition on contingent features of its administration, arguing that the death penalty is applied discriminatory, that the innocent are sometimes executed, or that there is insufficient evidence of the death penalty’s deterrent efficacy. Implicit in these arguments is the suggestion that if these contingencies did not obtain, serious moral objections to the death penalty would be misplaced. In this Article, Professor Finkelstein argues that there are grounds for opposing the death penalty even in the absence of such contingent factors. She proceeds by arguing that neither of the two prevailing theories of …


The Consciousness Of Religion And The Consciousness Of Law, With Some Implications For Dialogue, Howard Lesnick May 2006

The Consciousness Of Religion And The Consciousness Of Law, With Some Implications For Dialogue, Howard Lesnick

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No abstract provided.


Law, Ethics And Mystery, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr. Jan 2005

Law, Ethics And Mystery, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr.

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No abstract provided.


What Personal Rules Can Teach Us About Basic Institutions, Claire Oakes Finkelstein Jan 2005

What Personal Rules Can Teach Us About Basic Institutions, Claire Oakes Finkelstein

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No abstract provided.


Ripstein, Rawls, And Responsibility, Stephen R. Perry Jan 2004

Ripstein, Rawls, And Responsibility, Stephen R. Perry

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No abstract provided.


Harm, History, And Counterfactuals, Stephen R. Perry Jan 2003

Harm, History, And Counterfactuals, Stephen R. Perry

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No abstract provided.


No Other Gods: Answering The Call Of Faith In The Practice Of Law, Howard Lesnick Jan 2003

No Other Gods: Answering The Call Of Faith In The Practice Of Law, Howard Lesnick

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No abstract provided.


Method And Principle In Legal Theory, Stephen R. Perry Jan 2002

Method And Principle In Legal Theory, Stephen R. Perry

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No abstract provided.


Excuses And Dispositions In Criminal Law, Claire Oakes Finkelstein Jan 2002

Excuses And Dispositions In Criminal Law, Claire Oakes Finkelstein

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No abstract provided.


Lying To Protect Privacy, Anita L. Allen Jan 1999

Lying To Protect Privacy, Anita L. Allen

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No abstract provided.


Privacy And The Public Official: Talking About Sex As A Dilemma For Democracy, Anita L. Allen Jan 1999

Privacy And The Public Official: Talking About Sex As A Dilemma For Democracy, Anita L. Allen

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No abstract provided.


Preempting Oneself: The Right And The Duty To Forestall One's Own Wrongdoing, Leo Katz Jan 1999

Preempting Oneself: The Right And The Duty To Forestall One's Own Wrongdoing, Leo Katz

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Economists and philosophers working on problems of rational choice have for some time been concerned with various puzzles raised by so-called "Ullysean" configurations: actors who rationally cause themselves to act irrationally. (e.g., the person who swallows Thomas Schelling's famous irrationality pill to preempt an attempted robbery). What has attracted less attention is that these configurations present fascinating problems for morality, most especially for non-consequentialist morality. This article undertakes the exploration of some of these problems and the implications they hold for the morality of preemptive detention, preemptive self-defense, the creation of prophylactic crimes (like our drug laws) and a variety …


Hart's Methodological Positivism, Stephen R. Perry Jan 1998

Hart's Methodological Positivism, Stephen R. Perry

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No abstract provided.


The Religious Lawyer In A Pluralist Society, Howard Lesnick Jan 1998

The Religious Lawyer In A Pluralist Society, Howard Lesnick

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No abstract provided.


Genetic Testing, Nature, And Trust, Anita L. Allen Jan 1997

Genetic Testing, Nature, And Trust, Anita L. Allen

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No abstract provided.


Religious Particularity, Religious Metaphor, And Religious Truth: Listening To Tom Shaffer, Howard Lesnick Jan 1995

Religious Particularity, Religious Metaphor, And Religious Truth: Listening To Tom Shaffer, Howard Lesnick

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No abstract provided.


Hobbes, Formalism, And Corrective Justice, Anita L. Allen, Maria H. Morales Jan 1992

Hobbes, Formalism, And Corrective Justice, Anita L. Allen, Maria H. Morales

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No abstract provided.


The Wellsprings Of Legal Responses To Inequality: A Perspective On Perspectives, Howard Lesnick Jan 1991

The Wellsprings Of Legal Responses To Inequality: A Perspective On Perspectives, Howard Lesnick

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No abstract provided.


Alive And Well: Religious Freedom In The Welfare State, Anita L. Allen Jan 1990

Alive And Well: Religious Freedom In The Welfare State, Anita L. Allen

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No abstract provided.


Look Before You Leap: Some Cautionary Notes On Civic Republicanism, Michael A. Fitts Jan 1988

Look Before You Leap: Some Cautionary Notes On Civic Republicanism, Michael A. Fitts

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No abstract provided.


Reply To Cornel West, William Ewald Jan 1988

Reply To Cornel West, William Ewald

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No abstract provided.


Unger's Philosophy: A Critical Legal Study, William Ewald Jan 1988

Unger's Philosophy: A Critical Legal Study, William Ewald

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Of all the scholars associated with the Critical Legal Studies movement, none has garnered greater attention or higher praise than Roberto Unger of Harvard Law School. In this Article, William Ewald argues that Professor Unger's reputation as a brilliant philosopher of law is undeserved. Despite the seeming erudition of his books, Professor Unger's work displays little familiarity with the basic philosophical literature, and the philosophical, legal, and political analysis in those works-in particular, the celebrated critique of liberalism in Knowledge and Politics-is so riddled with logical and historical errors as to be unworthy of serious scholarly attention.


Manners, Metaprinciples, Metapolitics And Kennedy's Form And Substance, William W. Bratton Jan 1985

Manners, Metaprinciples, Metapolitics And Kennedy's Form And Substance, William W. Bratton

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No abstract provided.