Where Law and Morality Meet

Erscheinungsjahr 2004
ISBN: 978-0-19-927419-2
Verlag: OUP Oxford

Buch, Englisch, 312 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 634 g

How are law and morality connected, how do they interact, and in what ways are they distinct?

In Part I of this book, Matthew Kramer argues that moral principles can enter into the law of any jurisdiction. He contends that legal officials can invoke moral principles as laws for resolving disputes, and that they can also invoke them as threshold tests which ordinary laws must satisfy. In opposition to many other theorists, Kramer argues that these functions of moral principles are consistent with all the essential characteristics of any legal system.

Part II reaffirms the legal positivist argument that law and morality are separable, arguing against the position of natural-law theory, which portrays legal requirements as a species of moral requirements. Kramer contends that even though the existence of a legal system in any sizeable society is essential for the realization of fundamental moral values, law is not inherently moral either in its effects or in its motivational underpinnings.

In the final part, Kramer contests the widespread view that people whose conduct is meticulously careful cannot be held morally responsible for harmful effects of their actions. Through this argument, he reveals that fault-independent liability is present even more prominently in morality than in the law.

Through a variety of arguments, Where Law and Morality Meet highlights both some surprising affinities and some striking divergences between morality and law.

Zielgruppe

Scholars and students of jurisprudence, legal philosophy, political philosophy, moral philosophy and ethics, political theory, and political science.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kramer, Matthew H.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Rechtsphilosophie, Rechtsethik
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ethik, Moralphilosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Rechtswissenschaften Recht, Rechtswissenschaft Allgemein Rechtsphilosophie, Rechtsethik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- PREFACE

- CONTENTS

- INTRODUCTION

- PART I -- WHERE LAW AND MORALITY MEET: LEGAL POSITIVISM AND THE IDENTIFICATION OF LEGAL NORMS

- CHAPTER 1: HOW MORAL PRINCIPLES CAN ENTER INTO THE LAW

- CHAPTER 2: THROWING LIGHT ON THE ROLE OF MORAL PRINCIPLES IN THE LAW: FURTHER REFLECTIONS

- CHAPTER 3: ON MORALITY AS A NECESSARY OR SUFFICIENT CONDITION FOR LEGALITY

- CHAPTER 4: OF FINAL THINGS: MORALITY AS ONE OF THE ULTIMATE DETERMINANTS OF LEGAL VALIDITY

- PART II -- WHERE LAW AND MORALITY DIVERGE: LEGAL POSITIVISM REAFFIRMED

- CHAPTER 5: LEGAL POSITIVISM DEFENDED

- CHAPTER 6: ON THE MORAL STATUS OF THE RULE OF LAW

- CHAPTER 7: ON THE SEPARABILITY OF LAW AND MORALITY

- PART III -- FROM LEGAL PHILOSOPHY TO MORAL PHILOSOPHY: AFFINITIES BETWEEN LAW AND MORALITY

- CHAPTER 8: MORAL RIGHTS AND THE LIMITS OF THE 'OUGHT'-IMPLIES-'CAN' PRINCIPLE: WHY IMPECCABLE INTENTIONS ARE NO EXCUSE

Über Autor(innen)

Matthew H. Kramer is Professor of Legal and Political Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, Fellow of Churchill College, and Director of the Cambridge Forum for Legal and Political Philosophy.