RSS 1.0Law and Ethics
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The Law and Ethics Collection focuses on academic theses concerned by ethical aspects in law.
Recent Submissions
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Reflexiones para un pensamiento jurídico no racista[ES] Se muestra un enfoque del fenómeno del racismo desde la Filosofía del Derecho, señalando la necesidad de proteger al individuo frente al Derecho. Asimismo se realiza un breve análisis del concepto de diferencia, en relación al concepto de identidad. Para finalizar se desarrolla el concepto de respeto en relación a la personalidad jurídica insistiendo en la necesidad de normas de salvaguardia frente a las normas jurídicas.
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Reflexiones para un pensamiento jurídico no racista[ES] Se muestra un enfoque del fenómeno del racismo desde la Filosofía del Derecho, señalando la necesidad de proteger al individuo frente al Derecho. Asimismo se realiza un breve análisis del concepto de diferencia, en relación al concepto de identidad. Para finalizar se desarrolla el concepto de respeto en relación a la personalidad jurídica insistiendo en la necesidad de normas de salvaguardia frente a las normas jurídicas.
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Die Kritik der marxistischen Rechtstheorie: Zu Paschukanis' Begriff der RechtsformEugen Paschukanis' Rechtstheorie sagt nicht, wie das Recht sein, sondern, wie es erkannt werden soll. Der Begriff der Rechtsform ist dafür von zentraler Bedeutung. In ihm ist die Dialektik von Freiheit und Herrschaft in der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft erfasst. Ihn zu entfalten heißt, in der Darstellung des Rechts zugleich dessen immanente Kritik zu leisten. Linda Lilith Obermayrs Studie expliziert den Rechtsformbegriff in seiner engen Beziehung zur Kritik der politischen Ökonomie von Marx. In Form der Einwände des österreichischen Rechtstheoretikers Hans Kelsen macht sie zugleich eine exemplarische Gegenposition stark, an der sich Paschukanis' These einer umfassenden Selbstkritik unterziehen kann. Erst in Konfrontation mit Kelsens Positivismus und methodischem Reinheitspostulat tritt die Pointe marxistischer Rechtsformkritik in ihrer Radikalität hervor: Objektivität und Subjektivität, Unmittelbarkeit und Vermittlung, Wirklichkeit und Schein stellen sich zunehmend als die Gegenteile ihrer selbst dar.
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Etica & Politica / Ethics & Politics (2023) XXV/1EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2023-05-09Focus. Un'idea di cosmopolitismo nel pensiero di Hannah Arendt (?) - Symposium I. Tommaso Greco, "La legge della fiducia. Alle radici del diritto", Laterza, Roma-Bari 2021 - Symposium II. Francesco Toto, L’origine e la storia. Il Discorso sull’ineguaglianza di Rousseau, ETS Pisa 2020 - Symposium III. Stefan Lorenz Sorgner, We Have Always Been Cyborgs, Digital Data, Gene Technologies, and an Ethics of Transhumanism, Bristol University Press, Bristol 2021 - Varia
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Droit et intelligence artificielle : essai pour la reconnaissance du droit computationnelLa porosité entre le droit et l’intelligence artificielle a aujourd’hui soixante ans. Cette porosité qui devait, à l’origine, permettre aux informaticiens d’améliorer les performances cognitives de leurs algorithmes, ce, grâce au syllogisme juridique, a très vite suscité, en retour, l’intérêt des juristes pour l’informatique. Ces derniers ont compris qu’ils pouvaient tirer avantage des opportunités offertes par l’automatisation du droit, grâce aux nouvelles technologies. Ainsi, à l’aube de la décennie 2020, le machine learning, l’un des sous champ disciplinaires les plus récents de l’intelligence artificielle, permet autant d’améliorer les modalités d’application des lois et sanctions que de calculer les citoyens (police prédictive, justice prédictive, mais aussi accès au droit et à la justice en ligne).
 Ce déploiement du machine learning, qui s’opère autant dans les pays common lawyer que dans les pays de tradition civiliste, s’opère surtout dans un contexte d’a-légalité, au préjudice des droits des citoyens calculés. Les juristes nord-américains ont résolu ce défaut d’encadrement législatif en usant de la technique du judge made law. Cette technique, qui présente l’avantage de son adaptabilité, à la fois à chaque situation de vide législatif, mais aussi aux tendances de la société et des époques, sera à nouveau mobilisée, à l’avenir, lorsque les prochains sous champs disciplinaires de l’intelligence artificielle, dont le deep learning, seront déployés. La souplesse du système common lawyer nord américain peut servir de modèle au système français, pour mettre en place un cadre juridique régulant, aujourd’hui, le machine learning et, demain, les prochains sous champs disciplinaires de l’intelligence artificielle. Il convient toutefois d’adapter la dimension casuistique du modèle nord-américain au système français, en proposant d’user des normativités alternatives, et de l’éthique, comme instruments équivalant à la souplesse du judge made law. Cette approche permettrait d’observer les questions de droit qui se posent à chaque progrès technologique et d’envisager des réponses juridiques, dans un contexte enclin à légiférer une fois que l’ensemble des achoppements techniques et des problèmes de droit, que ceux-ci posent, a été saisi. Cette méthode, qui impose d’observer les nouveaux phénomènes technologiques au prisme des normativités alternatives avant de légiférer, devrait permettre d’orienter et d’influencer le travail de légistique du législateur français pour améliorer l’effectivité du droit du numérique quant à la protection des personnes calculées par des algorithmes, déployés autant par les administrations que par les sociétés de type legaltech.
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February 28, 2008: Abortion and Gay MarriageAbortion and Gay Marriage
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March 28, 2009: The Dalai Lama and Secular EthicsBlog post, “The Dalai Lama and Secular Ethics“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.
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October 11, 2008: Governor Palin Should Resign from the TicketBlog post, “Governor Palin Should Resign from the Ticket“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.
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Just Choices? Judicial Selection, Ideology, and Partisanship in the Ohio Supreme CourtThis thesis joins the conversation on judicial selection and impacts on judicial ideology. This is a multifaceted question that engages with the history of judicial selection, differences between states, growing polarization and partisanship, and an influx in campaign spending that can all influence Justices’ behavior while on the bench. While other theorists have used more quantitative or statistical analytics, more research is still needed on the nuanced and qualitative questions surrounding the judiciary in the United States, especially on the state level. I look at three Ohio Supreme Court Justices—Maureen O’Connor, Jennifer Brunner, and Sharon Kennedy—and decisions they have penned in three categories of case—criminal justice, low salience, and redistricting—to understand what factors influence judicial behavior. This process-tracing method showed that political affiliation and, to a lesser extent,positive public sentiment, influence judicial behavior, while amicus briefs and financial contributions were not directly impactful but are still relevant to the questions emerging in this area of legal scholarship. These findings are significant as they come at a point of major change in Ohio’s judicial selection: a move from the semi-partisan Michigan-Ohio method elections to the fully partisan elections introduced in 2022 by Senate Bill 80 (SB80). This research also emphasizes the importance of State Supreme Courts, an area under-researched in the field and lacking public engagement. By exploring these questions, this thesis is relevant not only to Ohio’s modern bench but also encourages research on federal courts and other state benches as well.
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Potential Tort Liability for Personal Use of Drone Aircraft.In the United States, the use of personal drones has become more prevalent. Businesses now use drones to deliver products to consumers. Consumers now use drones to video and photograph special events. As a result, new laws are needed concerning personal usage of drones. The number of drone sales is predicted to double by 2024. This is reflected by companies such as Parrot, a vendor of private drones, who in the first quarter of 2014 sold 670,000 drones. Citizens whose personal liberties have been infringed upon by another individual’s use of personal drones, often resort to common law torts because many states have yet to pass legislation concerning the use of drones. States that have passed laws concerning private drone usage, however, have widely varying methodologies. Therefore, a federal law is needed to offer consistency. The central issue concerning tortious liability is the altitude of the drone. The Second Restatement of Torts does not address this issue. The United States Supreme Court, in United States v. Causby, failed to state a specific permissible altitude. Therefore, a federal law specifying a permissible altitude of drones is necessary. Congress must decide the height at which drone flights remain protected. This task may require a reexamination of current curtilage standards. It will be necessary to merge the most applicable aspects of existing tort law with a modern understanding of appropriate standards of conduct. Although the private use of drone aircraft is part of the technological future, a balance is needed concerning the appropriate use of drones while safeguarding each citizens’ privacy.
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The Co-Author Prenup.Producing a book or article with co-authors is not an easy task. There are six potential issues one might consider before deciding to co-author a book or article. First, do you really want to be a co-author? Second, how many co-authors are going to be involved in the project? Having more than one co-author can make the departure of a co-author less of an issue, but each co-author needs to have a clearly defined role. Third, what role will each member of the team perform and what are those roles? Fourth, what should the co-author “marriage” look like? Multiple scenarios of a “marriage” are broken down and discussed. Fifth, what threats are there to the “marriage”? A structure needs to be formed and transparent anytime there are co-authors. Sixth, how would you dissolve the relationship? The relationship is much easier to dissolve when there is a clear path for how to handle the departure of one of the co-authors. Authoring a work for publication is a difficult task by itself, adding other pieces to the puzzle can alleviate some issues while potentially creating others. Prospective co-authors must be proactive in answering the questions that will arise during the co-authoring process. Also, having a prenup is useful; a sample prenup is provided.
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Texas Remedies in Equity for Breach of Fiduciary Duty: Disgorgement, Forfeiture, and Fracturing.The remedy of fee forfeiture against lawyer fiduciaries has been marginalized. Following Burrow v. Arce, Texas trial courts have frequently applied a no-fracturing rule that effectively bars a claim for breach of fiduciary duty against an attorney. Although the court in Burrow held actual damages were not a prerequisite for fee forfeiture, many Texas trial courts have not followed that precedent. Most Texas trial courts require the plaintiff to prove actual damages to survive a summary judgment motion. Others have openly asserted that not all legitimate claims for breach of fiduciary duty should be allowed as an alternative claim to legal malpractice. As a result, a schism in the substantive law applied to claims between non-lawyer and lawyer fiduciaries has emerged. A review of 741 appellate opinions over the last twenty-five years suggests that the schism has been growing over the last ten years. Furthermore, in the last five years, summary judgment was granted in 62% of cases against lawyer fiduciaries, compared to only 32% against non-lawyer fiduciaries. The no-fracturing rule is a misapplication of current Texas law. The rule incorrectly assumes that fee forfeiture and actual damages are mutually exclusive. Therefore, granting a defendant summary judgement for lack of actual damages beyond legal fees directly contradicts Burrow and must be reversed if fee forfeiture is to retain any effect. The Texas Supreme Court and the appellate courts, however, have made little effort to reconcile the schism on fee forfeiture between non-lawyer and lawyer fiduciaries. Due to Texas trial courts’ bias in favor of granting summary judgement, a plaintiff seeking a claim against a former attorney for a breach of fiduciary duty is advised to seek a remedy in equity.
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Ethics at the Speed of BusinessThis paper discusses several ways in which the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct, and the Illinois Supreme Court Rules, construct barriers that prevent lawyers and businesses from accomplishing reasonable commercial goals. Often, those barriers arise from outdated concepts, or terminology that does not reflect current business realities. The paper argues for the amendment of specific Rules to enhance lawyers’ and businesses’ respective abilities to conduct their affairs more efficiently, without sacrificing public protection in the process.
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The Decalogue of Justice: A Covenantal Application of Biblical JusticeThis dissertation aims to establish a biblical theology of justice (מִשְׁפָּט), ascertaining the commands and references to justice in Scripture are comprehensively and exclusively rooted in the Moral Law of the Torah, summarized in the Ten Commandments, and embedded in the Covenant of Grace (Old and New), making it binding on New Covenant believers and inextricably attached to the church’s Great Commission mandate. To this end, the study examines the concept of justice in the OT and the Moral Law, contrasting Reformed evangelical hermeneutics with the modern iteration of Liberation Theology in connection with the application of biblical justice. Additionally, the study examines the Reformed understanding of the Torah’s historical meaning and canonical significance to the church of the Old and New Covenants. The study will present three pericopes as expositional evidence supporting the thesis undergirding this dissertation: Exodus 21:1-23:33, Psalm 119, and James 2:1-13. First, the study will show how the Covenant Code (Exod. 21:1-23:33) is itself an exposition of the concept of justice found in the Decalogue, which is the Moral Law. The other two expositions represent the application of the Moral Law in the devotional life of an OT saint (Psalm 119), and another represents the application of the Law to the NT saints (James 2:1-13). Afterward, the research applies the findings to a contemporary case study to demonstrate the covenantal applicability of the Moral Law in the New Covenant. Indeed, a Reformed hermeneutical framework applies a covenantal understanding of the Moral Law, demonstrating its revelatory and practical function to the New Covenant saints. Finally, the study concludes with principles for applying the Moral Law to the New Covenant church because it is the same commandments Christ delivered and commissioned his followers to teach the nations.
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The State in the Legal Philosophy of Giorgio del VecchioThis paper focuses on a study of the works of Giorgio del Vecchio and his contributions to the philosophy of law. In this sense, the author analyzes del Vecchio's trilogy: i) the philosophical presuppositions of the concept of law; ii) the concept of law and iii) the concept of the nature and principle of law. The author contextualizes the period in which del Vecchio develops his works in order to situate his analysis: after the First World War. Likewise, the article also contemplates the conceptions that del Vecchio developed on ethics and its influence on the conception of the State, law and the theory of the State. Finally, the author reflects on the validity of del Vecchio's thoughts today and expresses his position on the relevance of his thought for further analysis in the philosophy of law.
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Reproductive Choice in Canadian Courts: An Evidence-Based Call for a Move to Relational AutonomyIn matters of reproduction, "choice" is a word laden with political and ethical connotations. The moral norm of respecting a woman's reproductive choice deserves our best defence. However, it is not often recognized that there can be a danger inherent in claiming that women have made reproductive choices — to become pregnant, to continue a pregnancy, or alternatively to terminate a pregnancy — when choices were not in fact made. In some legal cases, the outcome can turn on whether the judge believes a woman made a particular reproductive choice. If the judge believes, mistakenly, that the woman made a particular choice, then the resulting ruling can be damaging to her interests. This paper examines the role of judicial beliefs about reproductive choice and the harm that mistaken beliefs can cause. It suggests some ways to avoid these harms.
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Fiduciary Constitutionalism: Implications for Self-Pardons and Non-DelegationThe idea that public servants hold their offices in trust for subject-beneficiaries and that a sovereign's exercise of its political power must be constrained by fiduciary standards-like the duties of loyalty and care-is not new. But scholars are collecting more and more evidence that the framers of the U.S. Constitution may have sought to constrain public power in ways that we would today call fiduciary. In this article, we explore some important legal conclusions that follow from fiduciary constitutionalism. After developing some historical links between private fiduciary instruments and state and federal constitutions, we opine on what a fiduciary constitution may mean for modern issues in constitutional law. First, we argue that fiduciary constraint has implications for the legal validity of presidential pardons that are not efforts to pursue the public interest. Because the core duty of allfiduciaries is to be loyal to beneficiaries and not to pursue their own self-interest, pardons in derogation of a president's fiduciary obligation-the command of 'faithful execution" in Article II-are invalid. Second, we suggest that when we properly conceive of parts of the Constitution as best analogized to a trust instrument, we can both appreciate where the non-delegation doctrine came from and why it is consistent with the original meaning of the Constitution to have a more relaxed rule about delegation today. By way of conclusion, we meditate upon how to convert legal conclusions that flow from fiduciary features of the Constitution into remedies that make sense for the potentially sui generis fiduciary law of constitutional law.
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Hardball vs. Beanball: Identifying Fundamentally Antidemocratic TacticsThe “constitutional hardball” metaphor used by legal scholars and political scientists illuminates an important phenomenon in American politics, but it obscures a crisis in American democracy. In baseball, hardball encompasses legitimate tactics: pitching inside to brush a batter back but not injure, hard slides, hard tags. Baseball fans celebrate hardball. Many of the constitutional hardball maneuvers previously identified by scholars have been legitimate, if aggressive, constitutional political moves. But the label “hardball” has been interpreted too broadly to include illegitimate, fundamentally undemocratic tactics. I suggest a different baseball metaphor for such tactics: beanball, pitches meant to injure and knock out the opposing player, against the basic rules of the game. In this Reply to Fishkin, Pozen, and Bernstein, I first address Bernstein’s examples of President Barack Obama and Democrats engaging in hardball. I note that Fishkin and Pozen’s “asymmetry” thesis acknowledged clearly that Democrats play hardball, even if not as aggressively as Republicans have. I discuss government shutdowns, birtherism, debt ceiling threats, abuses of the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the contrasting manipulations leading to the Iraq War versus the Iran nuclear deal. This Reply then identifies examples of Republicans’ fundamentally antidemocratic beanball: voter ID laws and other voting restrictions, extreme gerrymandering, marginalizing racial minorities, and abusing the DOJ. Beanball’s destructive politics reflect racial status anxiety, paranoia, and a panic over dispossession and the loss of historical privilege.