The Moral Ambiguity Of Public Prosecution,
2021
University of Michigan Law School
The Moral Ambiguity Of Public Prosecution, Gabriel S. Mendlow
Articles
Classic crimes like theft and assault are in the first instance wrongs against individuals, not against the state or the polity that it represents. Yet our legal system denies crime victims the right to initiate or intervene in the criminal process, relegating them to the roles of witness or bystander—even as the system treats prosecution as an institutional analog of the interpersonal processes of moral blame and accountability, which give pride of place to those most directly wronged. Public prosecution reigns supreme, with the state claiming primary and exclusive moral standing to call offenders to account for their wrongs. Although …
Pernicious Loyalty,
2021
William & Mary Law School
Pernicious Loyalty, Andrew S. Gold
William & Mary Law Review
Fiduciary loyalty is generally considered valuable, and in the usual case it is. Yet some of the very features of loyalty that make it valuable also encourage behaviors harmful to beneficiaries, third parties, or society as a whole. Examples include the corporate director whose concern with shareholder wealth maximization leads to considerable environmental harm and the skillful attorney whose zealous representation undermines justice between the parties. In short, actions that are motivated by good-faith fiduciary loyalty may be undesirable in individual cases. I will describe such cases as cases of pernicious loyalty. Outside the law, pernicious loyalty is often limited …
We Have To Defeat The Myth Of The Stolen Election. We Risk Destroying Our Democracy If We Don't,
2021
Duquesne University
We Have To Defeat The Myth Of The Stolen Election. We Risk Destroying Our Democracy If We Don't, Bruce Ledewitz
Newspaper Columns
Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.
February 24, 2021: It Is Not Clear Whether Republicans Really Believe The 2020 Election Was Stolen--This Week's Column,
2021
Duquesne University
February 24, 2021: It Is Not Clear Whether Republicans Really Believe The 2020 Election Was Stolen--This Week's Column, Bruce Ledewitz
Hallowed Secularism
Blog post, “ It Is Not Clear Whether Republicans Really Believe the 2020 Election Was Stolen--This Week's Column“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.
Featured Speaker,
2021
Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law
Featured Speaker, Mary C. Gentile
Villanova Law Review Norman J. Shachoy Symposium
No abstract provided.
Review Of Lisa Kemmerer's Sister Species: Women, Animals, And Social Justice,
2021
Autonomous University of Barcelona
Review Of Lisa Kemmerer's Sister Species: Women, Animals, And Social Justice, Marine Lercier
Between the Species
What do we have in common with animals, and what do these women have in common? We are Sister Species, if not sisters at all. Lisa Kemmerer invites us to realize that we are more alike than different and to become aware of what our animal brothers and especially sisters experience: the suffering they endure because of our absurd inconsistencies and oppositions - even within the animal rights movement, often unbeknownst to us. The goal: more effective discourse and action, educating us to the other in the face of a norm imposed by a power, a discourse of normalization …
February 10, 2021: The San Francisco School Board Was Wrong To Remove Washington And Lincoln--This Week's Column In The Capital-Star,
2021
Duquesne University
February 10, 2021: The San Francisco School Board Was Wrong To Remove Washington And Lincoln--This Week's Column In The Capital-Star, Bruce Ledewitz
Hallowed Secularism
Blog post, “The San Francisco School Board Was Wrong to Remove Washington and Lincoln--this week's column in the Capital-Star“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.
The San Francisco School Board’S Vote Removing Lincoln’S, Washington's Names Was Wrong. Here's Why,
2021
Duquesne University
The San Francisco School Board’S Vote Removing Lincoln’S, Washington's Names Was Wrong. Here's Why, Bruce Ledewitz
Newspaper Columns
Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.
February 9, 2021: God And The Pandemic,
2021
Duquesne University
February 9, 2021: God And The Pandemic, Bruce Ledewitz
Hallowed Secularism
Blog post, “God and the Pandemic“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.
February 5, 2021: New York Review Letter To The Editor Concerning Originalism,
2021
Duquesne University
February 5, 2021: New York Review Letter To The Editor Concerning Originalism, Bruce Ledewitz
Hallowed Secularism
Blog post, “ New York Review Letter to the Editor Concerning Originalism“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.
Pa. Rep. Mike Kelly Came Closer Than You Think To Stealing The Election For Trump,
2021
Duquesne University
Pa. Rep. Mike Kelly Came Closer Than You Think To Stealing The Election For Trump, Bruce Ledewitz
Newspaper Columns
Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.
January 28, 2021: Miike Kelly Got Closer Than People Think To Stealing The Election For Trump,
2021
Duquesne University
January 28, 2021: Miike Kelly Got Closer Than People Think To Stealing The Election For Trump, Bruce Ledewitz
Hallowed Secularism
Blog post, “Mike Kelly Got Closer than People Think to Stealing the Election for Trump“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.
January 11, 2021: Pa. Senate Republicans Need To Seat Dem. Jim Brewster--This Week's Column In The Pennsylvania Capital-Star,
2021
Duquesne University
January 11, 2021: Pa. Senate Republicans Need To Seat Dem. Jim Brewster--This Week's Column In The Pennsylvania Capital-Star, Bruce Ledewitz
Hallowed Secularism
Blog post, “Pa. Senate Republicans Need to Seat Dem. Jim Brewster--this week's column in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.
Pa. Senate Republicans Need To Seat Sen. Jim Brewster,
2021
Duquesne University
Pa. Senate Republicans Need To Seat Sen. Jim Brewster, Bruce Ledewitz
Newspaper Columns
Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.
The Tale Of Two Harts; A Schlegelian Dialectic,
2021
University of Virginia
The Tale Of Two Harts; A Schlegelian Dialectic, Charles L. Barzun
Buffalo Law Review
No abstract provided.
The Failure Of Imagination: A Theoretical And Pragmatic Analysis Of Utopianism As An Orientation For Human Life,
2021
Liberty University
The Failure Of Imagination: A Theoretical And Pragmatic Analysis Of Utopianism As An Orientation For Human Life, Maverick Edwards
Liberty University Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy
Utopian theorists have long attempted to imagine “perfect” frameworks for human life. From Plato’s description of the ideal, state-centric society in the “Laws”, to Murray Rothbard’s anarcho-capitalist society, theorists have created a myriad of solutions they believe will fix most, if not all, human dilemmas. In analyzing these utopian projects from pragmatic and theoretical perspectives, this paper will argue that utopias are a failed project. Pragmatically, the development of utopia has a long and consistent track record of failure. Even the “successes” of utopian thought are under scrutiny, as they ultimately collapsed. Theoretically, the conceptualization of “perfection” entails unimaginable risk. …
Book Review, Secular Surge: A New Fault Line In American Politics,
2021
Duquesne University
Book Review, Secular Surge: A New Fault Line In American Politics, Bruce Ledewitz
Ledewitz Papers
Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals
John Stuart Mill’S Harm Principle And Free Speech: Expanding The Notion Of Harm,
2021
Washington and Lee University School of Law
John Stuart Mill’S Harm Principle And Free Speech: Expanding The Notion Of Harm, Melina Constantine Bell
Scholarly Articles
This article advocates employing John Stuart Mill’s harm principle to set the boundary for unregulated free speech, and his Greatest Happiness Principle to regulate speech outside that boundary because it threatens unconsented-to harm. Supplementing the harm principle with an offense principle is unnecessary and undesirable if our conception of harm integrates recent empirical evidence unavailable to Mill. For example, current research uncovers the tangible harms individuals suffer directly from bigoted speech, as well as the indirect harms generated by the systemic oppression and epistemic injustice that bigoted speech constructs and reinforces. Using Mill’s ethical framework with an updated notion of …
Improving The Ethical Review Of Health Policy And Systems Research: Some Suggestions,
2021
University of Denver
Improving The Ethical Review Of Health Policy And Systems Research: Some Suggestions, Govind Persad
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
Consistent and well-designed frameworks for ethical oversight enable socially valuable research while forestalling harmful or poorly designed studies. I suggest some alterations that might strengthen the valuable checklist Rattani and Hyder propose in this issue of Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics Reference Rattani and Hyder for the ethical review of health policy and systems research (HPSR), or prompt future work in the area.
How People Judge Institutional Corruption,
2021
University of Connecticut
How People Judge Institutional Corruption, Elinor Amit, Eugy Han, Ann-Christin Posten, Steven Sloman
Connecticut Law Review
Institutional corruption refers to actions that are legal yet carry negative consequences for the greater good. Such legal yet harmful behaviors have been observed among politicians and donors who establish quid-pro-quo relationships in exchange for money and among doctors who receive gifts from pharmaceutical companies in return for recommending the companies’ drugs. How does the general public reconcile the tension between the legal status of an action and its impact on the greater good and judge the action’s moral acceptability? We explored this question empirically by comparing the relative weight people give to the legal status of actions and to …
