Bøger i Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Law serien

This book focuses on the degree to which certain moral and legal doctrines are rooted in specific passions that are then institutionalised in the form of criminal law. A philosophical analysis is developed of the following questions: when, if ever, should hatred be overcome by sympathy or compassion? What are forgiveness and mercy and to what degree do they require - both conceptually and morally - the overcoming of certain passions and the motivation by other passions? If forgiveness and mercy indeed are moral virtues, what role, if any, should they play in the law?

This book is the first comprehensive study of the problem of the enforceability of restraint. Focusing on the enforceability of legal rights, but also addressing the enforceability of moral rights and social conventions, Mark Reiff explains how we use punishment and compensation to make restraints operative in the world.

Robert F. Schopp examines the role that psychological impairment should play in a theory of criminal liability.

Natural Law and Practical Rationality is a defence of a contemporary natural law theory of practical rationality, demonstrating its inherent plausibility and engaging systematically with rival egoist, consequentialist, Kantian and virtue accounts.

Drawing on reflections about the nature of law, constitutions, the common law, and what it is to be a democratic representative, Waluchow urges a different theory of bills of rights that is flexible and adaptable.

David Luban is one of the world's leading scholars of legal ethics. This collection of his most significant papers includes such topics as the moral psychology of organisational evil, the strengths and weaknesses of the adversary system, and jurisprudence from the lawyer's point of view.

In this book, legal scholars, philosophers, historians and political scientists from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States analyse the common law through three of its classic themes: rules, reasoning and constitutionalism.

This book exposes fallacies inspired by the idea that coercion seems inseparable from government and in doing so shows that living in a just state remains a worthy ideal.

Explores the thesis that legal roles force people to engage in moral combat. Heidi Hurd advances the surprising argument that the law cannot require us to do what morality forbids.

This study of discrimination focuses not on differences between men and women but on what women need to lead successful lives. This work promises to be a milestone in the debate about gender equality and will interest students and professionals in the areas of legal theory and gender studies.

Natural law is a perennial though poorly represented and understood issue in political philosophy and the philosophy of law. In this 2006 book, Mark C. Murphy argues that the central thesis of natural law jurisprudence - that law is backed by decisive reasons for compliance - sets the agenda for natural law political philosophy.

This book offers an original theory of adjudication focused on the ethics of judging in courts of law, and proposes two main theses - the good faith thesis and the permissible discretion thesis. Together these two theses oppose both conservative theories and leftist critical theories.

Using informal game theory in the analysis of norms and customs, Hetcher applies his theory of norms to tort law and Internet privacy laws. This book will appeal to students and professionals in law, philosophy, and political and social theory.

This book was the first booklength treatment of the philosophical foundations of international criminal law. The focus is on the moral, legal, and political questions that arise when individuals who commit collective crimes, such as crimes against humanity, are held accountable by international criminal tribunals.

This book is both a work of intellectual history and a contribution to legal philosophy. It represents a serious and philosophically sophisticated guide to modern American legal theory, demonstrating that legal positivism has been a misunderstood and underappreciated perspective through most of twentieth-century American legal thought.

This book examines the relationship between collective responsibility and individual guilt. It presents a rigorous philosophical account of the nature of our relations to the social groups in which we participate, and uses that account in a discussion of contemporary moral theory.

Schultz argues that markets are not moral-free zones, and that achieving the economic common good does indeed require morality. He demonstrates that efficient outcomes of market interaction cannot be achieved without moral normative constraints and then goes on to specify a set of normative conditions which make these outcomes possible.

Do citizens have an obligation to obey the law? This book differs from standard approaches by shifting from the language of obedience to that of deference. Though the focus is on political obligation, the author approaches that issue indirectly by developing a more general account of when deference is due.

This major study advances an interpretation of criminal justification defences that views them as an integral component of the structure of the criminal law. The book integrates philosophical analysis with a consideration of contemporary applications and shows how these defences are key components of criminal law.

This book examines responsibility and luck as these issues arise in tort law, criminal law, and distributive justice. This is a challenging and provocative book that will be of special interest to moral and political philosophers, legal theorists, and political scientists.

Do individuals have a positive right of self-defence? And if so, what are the limits of this right? These are two of the questions explored by Suzanne Uniacke in this comprehensive 1994 philosophical discussion of the principles relevant to self-defence as a moral and legal justification of homicide.

Beginning with the premise that the principal function of a criminal trial is to find out the truth about a crime, Larry Laudan examines the rules of evidence and procedure that would be appropriate if the discovery of the truth were, as higher courts routinely claim, the overriding aim of the criminal justice system. Laudan mounts a systematic critique of existing rules and procedures that are obstacles to that quest. He also examines issues of error distribution by offering the first integrated analysis of the various mechanisms - the standard of proof, the benefit of the doubt, the presumption of innocence and the burden of proof - for implementing society's view about the relative importance of the errors that can occur in a trial.

This book provides a comprehensive, systematic theory of moral responsibility. The authors explore the conditions under which individuals are morally responsible for actions, omissions, consequences, and emotions. The leading idea in the book is that moral responsibility is based on 'guidance control'. This control has two components: the mechanism that issues in the relevant behavior must be the agent's own mechanism, and it must be appropriately responsive to reasons. The book develops an account of both components. The authors go on to offer a sustained defense of the thesis that moral responsibility is compatible with causal determinism.

In this provocative book, Alexander offers a sceptical appraisal of the claim that freedom of expression is a human right. He examines the various contexts in which a right to freedom of expression might be asserted and concludes that such a right cannot be supported in any of these contexts. He argues that some legal protection of freedom of expression is surely valuable, though the form such protection will take will vary with historical and cultural circumstances and is not a matter of human right. Written in a clear and accessible style, this book will appeal to students and professionals in political philosophy, law, political science, and human rights.

When does a woman give valid consent to sexual relations? When does her consent render it morally or legally permissible for a man to have sexual relations with her? Why is sexual consent generally regarded as an issue about female consent? And what is the moral significance of consent? These are some of the questions discussed in this important book, which will appeal to a wide readership in philosophy, law, and the social sciences. Alan Wertheimer develops a theory of consent to sexual relations that applies to both law and morality in the light of the psychology of sexual relations, the psychology of perpetrators, and the psychology of the victims. He considers a wide variety of difficult cases such as coercion, fraud, retardation, and intoxication. We can all agree that 'no' means 'no'. This book suggests that the difficult question is whether 'yes' means 'yes'.

Brings together some of the most distinguished legal scholars from the United States and Canada to examine competing understandings of The Path of the Law, a seminal work in American legal theory, and its implications for contemporary American jurisprudence.

When accidents occur and people suffer injuries, who ought to bear the loss? Tort law is a complex answer to this question, but philosophers have offered little by way of analysis of its rules. In eight essays commissioned for this volume, leading legal theorists examine the philosophical foundations of tort law.

This collection not only presents some of the most challenging work in legal philosophy, but it also demonstrates the interdisciplinary character of the field of philosophy of law, with contributors taking into account developments in economics, political science and rational choice theory.

A distinguished team of legal theorists examine the issue of constitutionalism, asking such questions as: why have a constitution? How do we know what the constitution of a country really is? How should a constitution be interpreted? Why should one generation feel bound by the constitution of an earlier one?

This collection of essays written by some of the most eminent scholars in the field, examines the most central issues of property theory from a variety of perspectives. The essays discuss the nature of property and property rights, transmission of property after death and intellectual and cultural property.