Full Description
Drawing inspiration from the profoundly influential work of legal theorist Larry Alexander, this volume tackles central questions in criminal law, constitutional law, jurisprudence, and moral philosophy. What are the legitimate conditions of blame and punishment? What values are at the heart of constitutional protections against discrimination or infringements of free speech? Must judges interpret statutes and constitutional provisions in ways that comport with the intentions of those who wrote them? Can the law obligate us to violate the demands of morality, and when can the law allow the rights of the few to be violated for the good of the many? This collection of essays by world-renowned legal theorists is for anyone interested in foundational questions about the law's authority, the conditions of its fair application to citizens, and the moral justifications of the rights, duties, and permissions that it protects.
Contents
1. Introduction: Larry Alexander Heidi M. Hurd; Part I. Puzzles in Criminal Law: 2. Kinds of punishment Douglas Husak; 3. Partial responsibility and excuse David O. Brink; 4. 'Thank God I Failed' R. A. Duff; 5. Does duress justify or excuse? The significance of Larry Alexander's ambivalence Peter Westen; 6. Alternative lesser evils Gideon Yaffe; Part II. Problems in Constitutional Law: 7. Justifying academic freedom: Mill and Marcuse revisited Brian Leiter; 8. Vindicating judicial supremacy Laurence Claus; 9. Alexander's 'simple-minded originalism' Connie S. Rosati; 10. Subjective versus objective intentionalism in legal interpretation Jeffrey Goldsworthy; 11. Simple-minded originalism? Simply wrong! Lawrence B. Solum; 12. Intentions in tension Frederick Schauer; 13. Alexander's constitutionalism: a qualified defense Alon Harel; Part III. Perplexities in Jurisprudence: 14. For legal principles Mitchell N. Berman; 15. The court, or the constitution? William Baude; 16. Alexander as anarchist Steven D. Smith; 17. Exclusionary rules Emily Sherwin; 18. Larry Alexander and 'The Gap' Leo Katz and Alvaro Sandroni; Part IV. Paradoxes in Moral Philosophy: 19. Respect and discrimination Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen; 20. The means principle and optimific wrongs Kimberly Kessler Ferzan; 21. Deontology's travails Richard Arneson; 22. The rationality of threshold deontology Michael S. Moore; 23. Real-world criminal law and the norm against punishing the innocent: two cheers for threshold deontology Kevin Cole; 24. Appreciation and responses Larry Alexander.
