Law Commons^™

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

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals.

Introduction To Law In Literature And Philosophy, Joseph P. Tomain

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

As the title indicates, this is an Introductory Memorandum for a course entitled: Law In Literature and Philosophy. The memorandum begins to explore the themes of the course more particularly it explores the relationships between and among law, literature, and philosophy by posing questions such as: Is the intersection of law and literature limited to stories about law and methods of interpretation? Or is law and literature a movement to reclaim law as part of the humanities rather than as a social science such as economics as Judge Posner questions? Or, does literature, as Professor Martha Nussbaum has written, help …

The History Of Inequality In Education And The Question Of Equality Versus Adequacy, Diana Carol Dominguez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Although the U.S. Constitution espouses equality, it clearly is not practiced in all aspects of life with education being a significant outlier. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote about inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These two theories are related to education through educational adequacy and equality. Sufficientarianism, or educational adequacy, says that what is important is that everyone has “good enough” educational opportunities, but not the same ones. Egalitarianism, or educational equality, says that there is an intrinsic value in having the same educational opportunities and only having good enough opportunities misses something …

The Social Relations Of Consumption: Corporate Law And The Meaning Of Consumer Culture, David Yosifon

Faculty Publications

A mature assessment of the society we are making for ourselves, and the legacy we are leaving to the future, must come to terms with consumer culture. Theoretical discourse, as well as common experience, betray persistent ambiguity about what consumerism means to and says about us. In this Article, I argue that this ambiguity can in part be explained by examining the social relations of consumption in contemporary society. These involve, crucially, the relationship between producer and consumer that is dictated by corporate governance law, and embodied in the decision-making dynamics of the directors who command corporate operations. The enigmatic …

Why Tax Wealth Transfers?: A Philosophical Analysis, Jennifer Bird-Pollan

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The one-hundredth anniversary of the estate tax provides an ideal moment to reflect on the role of wealth transfer taxation in the larger scheme of the U.S. tax system. Wealth and income inequality are at historically high levels, and the responses to these issues are often reduced to a simplistic political dichotomy of “right” versus “left.” The multitude of views of the American people cannot be reduced to such simple generalities without losing important nuances. This Article identifies three general categories of political philosophical viewpoints that are commonly endorsed by both politicians and everyday Americans, and then examines the current …

Utilitarianism And Wealth Transfer Taxation, Jennifer Bird-Pollan

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article is the third in a series examining the continued relevance and philosophical legitimacy of the United States wealth transfer tax system from within a particular philosophical perspective. The article examines the utilitarianism of John Stuart Mill and his philosophical progeny and distinguishes the philosophical approach of utilitarianism from contemporary welfare economics, primarily on the basis of the concept of "utility" in each approach. After explicating the utilitarian criteria for ethical action, the article goes on to think through what Mill's utilitarianism says about the taxation of wealth and wealth transfers, the United States federal wealth transfer tax system …

Correlates Of Ethical Sensitivity And Reasoning And Their Potential Influence On Accounting Education, Michael Francis Ruff

2016

This dissertation consists of three studies investigating the impact of accounting ethics interventions on graduate students in accountancy. This dissertation relies primarily on neo-Kohlbergian theory and Rest’s framework of ethical behavior (Rest 1979, 1986) because this framework has figured prominently in the body of accounting and auditing research on ethics and professionalism.

The first study reviews and synthesizes the current state of the literature regarding accounting ethics. This literature review starts with definitions and follows with a history and evolution of ethics theories, with an emphasis on neo-Kohlbergian theory, Rest’s Four Component Model of ethical behavior, the Defining Issues Test …

Subsidiarity's Roots And History: Some Observations, John M. Finnis

Journal Articles

Subsidiarity, i.e., “the principle of subsidiarity,” i.e., “the principle of subsidiary function/responsibility,” i.e., the principle that it is unjust for a higher authority (e.g., the state’s government and law) to usurp the self-governing authority that lower authorities (e.g., in families or other civil associations), acting in the service of their own members (groups and persons), rightly have over those members, is a presumptive and defeasible, not an absolute, principle. But it excludes any general policy or aim of assuming the control or managerial direction of lower groups. Its deepest rationale is the intrinsic desirability of self-direction (not least in cooperatively …

Applied Ethics: A Misnomer For A Field?, Leslie Francis

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

You may have guessed that I’m a pragmatist, methodologically. To that, I plead guilty; I think ethics could learn a great deal from the pragmatist tradition. And one of the most important things it could learn is to object to artificial separations between “ethics” and its “application.”

Philosophy Of Law In The Arctic, Dawid Bunikowski, Jaakko Husa, Diana Ginn, Ko Hasegawa, Karol Dobrzeniecki, Patrick Dillon, Francis Joy, Rene Kuppe, Leena Heinämäki, Maura Hanrahan, Tom Svensson, Makoto Usami, Agnieszka Szpak, Rebecca Johnson, Brendan Tobin

Books

This is rather the first book with a title "Philosophy of Law in the Arctic" in the literature. This philosophy of law is a very wide and cross-disciplinary area of research: between law, philosophy, anthropology, history, cultural ecology or environmental studies. I have no doubts that we have done such kind of philosophy in the academia so far, not using this term, but keeping up with the concept, the idea.

The book is a result of research conducted by many members of the Sub-group of Philosophy of Law in the Arctic (the University of the Arctic). This team seems a …

Ross Douthat’S Critique Of Modernity, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Ross Douthat’s Critique of Modernity“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

December 25, 2015: Merry Christmas 2015, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Merry Christmas 2015“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

December 17, 2015: Underlying Consensus?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Underlying Consensus?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

December 9, 2015: The Spirit Of Doom, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Spirit of Doom“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

December 5, 2015: Islamic Terrorism, Christian Terrorism And Jewish Terrorism, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Islamic Terrorism, Christian Terrorism and Jewish Terrorism“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

December 1, 2015: What Really Fuels Isis?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “What Really Fuels ISIS?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 24, 2015: I Guess Trump Really Could Win The Republican Nomination, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “I Guess Trump Really Could Win the Republican Nomination“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 22, 2015: Reason Is Not An Alternative To Religion, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “ Reason is Not an Alternative to Religion“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 19, 2015: How To Defeat Isis, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “How to Defeat ISIS“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 15, 2015: None, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “None“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 13, 2015: Heidegger’S Judeo-Christian, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Heidegger’s Judeo-Christian“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 8, 2015: What Is Wrong With Whites?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “What is Wrong with Whites?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 3, 2015: Title: Ross Douthat’S Mistakeross Douthat’S Mistake, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Ross Douthat’s Mistake“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

October 29, 2015: So, It's Not Going To Be Trump (Or Carson), Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “So, It's Not Going to be Trump (or Carson)“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

October 23, 2015: Heidegger And The Last God, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Heidegger and the Last God“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

October 15, 2015: The Difficulty Of Reining In Money, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Difficulty of Reining in Money“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

October 11, 2015: Liberals Fooling Themselves About Political Money, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Liberals Fooling Themselves About Political Money“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

October 7, 2015: The Pretty Small University, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Pretty Small University“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

October 3, 2015: Is Litigation The Way To Stop Global Warming?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Is Litigation the Way to Stop Global Warming?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

September 30, 2015: Did Pope Francis Do His Job?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Did Pope Francis Do His Job?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.