Law and Philosophy Commons^™

Why Restate The Bundle? The Disintegration Of The Restatement Of Property, Thomas W. Merrill, Henry E. Smith

Faculty Scholarship

The American Law Institute (ALI) has devoted a great deal of time and energy to restating the law of property. To date, the ALI has produced 17 volumes that bear the name First, Second, or Third Restatement of Property. There is unquestionably much that is valuable in these materials. On the whole, however, the effort has been a disappointment. Some volumes seek faithfully to restate the consensus view of the law; others are transparently devoted to law reform. The ratio of reform to restatement has increased over time, to the point where significant portions of the Third Restatement …

December 30, 2013: The Moral Universe, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

An Opinion For The Ages, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

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

December 25, 2013: The Future Of The Secular Outlook, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

December 21, 2013: Donald Rumsfeld And The Banality Of Evil, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Donald Rumsfeld and the Banality of Evil“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

December 15, 2013: Self Actualization Is Sin, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Self Actualization Is Sin“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

December 8, 2013: President Obama In The Sweet Spo, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “President Obama in the Sweet Spo“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

December 4, 2013: God Again, Or, Am I An Atheist?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “God Again, Or, Am I an Atheist?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Actmissions, Luis E. Chiesa

West Virginia Law Review

Most observers agree that it is morally worse to cause harm by engaging in an act than to contribute to producing the same harm by an omission. As a result, American criminal law punishes harmful omissions less than similarly harmful acts, unless there are exceptional circumstances that warrant punishing them equally. Yet there are many cases in which actors cause harm by engaging in conduct that can be reasonably described as either an act or an omission. Think of a doctor who flips a switch that discontinues life support to a patient. If the patient dies as a result, did …

The Paradoxes Of Restitution, Mark A. Edwards

West Virginia Law Review

Restitution following mass dispossession is often considered both ideal and impossible. Why? This Article identifies two previously unnamed paradoxes that undermine the possibility of restitution: the time-unworthiness paradox and the collective responsibility paradox. After developing these ideas, the Article examines them in the context of a particularly difficult and intractable case of dispossession and restitution. The Article draws upon interviews with restitution claimants whose stories reveal the paradoxes of restitution.

November 28, 2013: The Theology Of The Disappearance Of Thanksgiving, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

Stretching Religious Liberty, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

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

November 20, 2013: God Is Not A Supernatural Thing, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “God is not a Supernatural Thing“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 16, 2013: The Mythical Elements Of The Bible, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

November 13, 2013: Huffington Post Blog Entry On Legislative Prayer, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Huffington Post Blog Entry on Legislative Prayer“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 8, 2013: Legislative Prayer, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

Fuller And Godel: Prophets Against The Evils Of Positivism: How The Natural Law Is Necessary To Provide Legal Meaning And Consistency, Henry James Garon

LLM Theses

Gödel showed that formal systems which discuss natural numbers cannot be complete or prove their own consistency. Incompleteness in this sense is limited to formal systems, and so is not applicable to law by it own terms.

Looking to the philosophy behind the Incompleteness Theorem, Gödel intended to show that positivism was a bankrupt world-view, and this resonates strongly with Lon Fuller. Fuller is analogous to Gödel in his condemnation of the positivist philosophy because he showed that a system of rules, by itself, was not capable of rendering judgments. A legal system is dependent upon an external morality, but …

November 3, 2013: Ronald Dworkin's Confusion, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Ronald Dworkin's Confusion“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Meaning And Belief In Constitutional Interpretation, Andrei Marmor

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The distinction between a concept and its different conceptions plays a prominent role in debates about constitutional interpretation. Proponents of a dynamic reading of the Constitution-espousing interpretation of constitutional concepts according to their contemporary understandings typically rely on the idea that the Constitution entrenches only the general concepts it deploys, without authoritatively favoring any particular conception of them-specifically, without favoring the particular conception of the relevant concept that the framers of the Constitution may have had in mind. Originalists argue, to the contrary, that fidelity to the Constitution requires an understanding of its provisions according to the particular conception of …

October 31, 2013: Hypocrisy Over Turkey, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Hypocrisy over Turkey“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

October 26, 2013: In God We Trust In The Public Schools, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “In God We Trust in the Public Schools“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

October 18, 2013: One Cheer For John Boehner, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “One Cheer for John Boehner“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

October 5, 2013: Break From Blogging, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Break from Blogging“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

October 2, 2013: The Sharing Economy, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

The Future Of Philanthropy: Questioning Today's Orthodoxies, Re-Affirming Yesterday's Foundations, Rob Atkinson

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Unseating Privilege: Rawls, Equality Of Opportunity, And Wealth Transfer Taxation, Jennifer Bird-Pollan

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article is the second in a series that examines the estate tax from a particular philosophical position in order to demonstrate the relevance and importance of the wealth transfer taxes to that position. In this Article, I explore Rawlsian equality of opportunity, a philosophical position that is at the heart of much American thought. Equality of opportunity requires not only ensuring that sufficient opportunities are available to the least well-off members of society but also that opportunities are not available to other members merely because of their wealth or other arbitrary advantages. Therefore, an income tax alone, even one …

Feeling Relational: The Use Of Buddhist Meditation In Restorative Practices, Gordon Shotwell

Dalhousie Law Journal

Some theorists have argued that restorative justice can be defined as a theory of justice based on the. relationality of self-the idea that the self exists in and through its relationships with others. This account of self, while analytically compelling, conflicts with our intuitions of individuality I argue that Buddhist metaphysics provides an explanation of this conflict, and that meditation practice can help restorative justice practitioners develop an intuitive understanding of the relationality of self.

Roe V. Wade At 40, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

Under the leadership of Chief Justice Warren Burger, who joined it in 1969, the Supreme Court departed from the course taken during the 16-year tenure of his predecessor, Earl Warren. The Burger Court rolled back precedents in criminal procedure and obscenity, while stopping the drive to universalize welfare rights and equalize public schooling expenditures. Roe v. Wade (1973), on the other hand, extended the Warren Court's deepest commitments: sexual liberation, obviously; equality, with respect to both race and class; and even church-state separation, insofar as the Roe Justices identified opposition to abortion with Catholic dogma. These more or less "progressive" …

September 27, 2013: What Is The Meaning Of The Fall/Original Sin?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “What Is the Meaning of the Fall/Original Sin?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

September 22, 2013: The Believer Who Wills Not To Believe, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Believer Who Wills Not To Believe“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.