Law and Philosophy Commons^™

Exoatmospheric Plowshares: Using A Nuclear Explosive Device For Planetary Defense Against An Incoming Asteroid, David A. Koplow

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

What should be done if we suddenly discover a large asteroid on a collision course with Earth? The consequences of an impact could be enormous—scientists believe that such a strike 60 million years ago led to the extinction of the dinosaurs, and something of similar magnitude could happen again. Although no such extraterrestrial threat now looms on the horizon, astronomers concede that they cannot detect all the potentially hazardous “near-Earth objects,” and even more striking, they acknowledge that if such a danger were discerned, there is currently no proven capability for diverting or destroying it.

One possible response to this …

No Arbitrary Power: An Originalist Theory Of The Due Process Of Law, Randy E. Barnett, Evan Bernick

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

“Due process of law” is arguably the most controversial and frequently-litigated phrase in the American Constitution. Although the dominant originalist view has long been that Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process of Law Clauses are solely “process” guarantees and don’t constrain the “substance” of legislation at all, originalist scholars have in recent years made fresh inquiries into the historical evidence and concluded that there’s a weighty case for some form of substantive due process. In this Article, we review and critique these findings employing our theory of good-faith originalist interpretation and construction.

We begin by investigating the “letter” of the …

March 31, 2019: When Cynicism Came To The West, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “When Cynicism Came to the West“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

The Roots And Fruits Of Good Faith In Domestic Court Practice, Thomas Neumann

Pace International Law Review

Good faith—most lawyers have an opinion on these two words. While the notion of good faith may play specific roles at domestic and regional levels, it remains an elusive siren at the international level. The concept was subject to controversy at the birth of the 1980 United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) and has been debated by scholars ever since. Considering that the Convention has now been in force for over thirty years, it is agreed that time is ripe for “a call to arms for further research into a uniform standard of good …

Responsibility In Building Rule Of Law: Kosovo Challenges, Avdullah Robaj, Sabiha Shala

International Journal on Responsibility

The principle of the rule of law is one of the most important and essential principles for any state and for democratic society. Its fullest realization in everyday life is the best guarantee for development of democracy and recognition and enforcement of citizens' fundamental rights and freedoms. To this end, the general principles of the rule of law today occupy a special place and are fixed explicitly in contemporary constitutions and democratic legislation. The well-known countries of Western democracies have long established a rich and valuable legacy in this regard. When exploring the contours and details about establishing the rule …

March 24, 2019: The Two Party Lies That Fuel Political Alienation In America, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Two Party Lies that Fuel Political Alienation in America“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

The Supreme Court Will Preserve The Bladensburg Cross, But It Matters How, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

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

March 17, 2019: The Response To My Anti-Court-Packing Message, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Response to My anti-Court-Packing Message“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Law's Enterprise: Argumentation Schemes & Legal Analogy, Brian N. Larson

Faculty Scholarship

Reasoning by legal analogy has been described as mystical, reframed by skeptics using the deductive syllogism, and called “no kind of reasoning at all” by Judge Posner. Arguments by legal analogy happen every day in courtrooms, law offices, and law-school classrooms, and they are the essence of what we mean when we talk of thinking like a lawyer. But we have no productive and normative theory for creating and evaluating them. Entries in the debate over the last 25 years by Professors Sunstein, Schauer, Brewer, Weinreb, and others leave us at an impasse: The ‘skeptics’ are too focused on the …

March 10, 2019: Best Column Even By Thomas Friedman, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Best Column Even by Thomas Friedman“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

March 7, 2019: Network Message Endorses Nihilism, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Network Message Endorses Nihilism“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

February 28, 2019: The Communitarian Collapse In America, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

February 23, 2019: Opening Of The Memphis Talk On Court-Packing, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Opening of the Memphis talk on Court-Packing“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

March 21, 2019: My Op-Ed On The Bladesnburg Cross, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “ My op-ed on the Bladesnburg Cross“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

February 16, 2019: John Yoo, War Criminal, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “John Yoo, War Criminal“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

February 12, 2019: Ishmael, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

February 10, 2019: This Political Moment, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

February 2, 2019: Leaver Agriculture, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

Artificially Intelligent Law, Lawrence B. Solum

Faculty Scholarship

This paper explores a series of thought experiments that postulate the ex-istence of "artificially intelligent law." An artificially-intelligent legal system is de-fined as one with three functional capacities: 1. The system has the capacity to gen-erate legal norms. 2. The system has the capacity to apply the legal norms that it generates. 3. The system has the capacity to use deep learning to modify the legal norms that it generates. The paper then considers the question whether such a sys-tem would be desirable as a matter of legitimacy and justice. The core idea of the paper is that the key …