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JournalISSN: 0167-5249

Law and Philosophy 

Springer Science+Business Media
About: Law and Philosophy is an academic journal published by Springer Science+Business Media. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Philosophy of law & Political philosophy. It has an ISSN identifier of 0167-5249. Over the lifetime, 804 publications have been published receiving 11236 citations.


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742 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: For example, Posner as discussed by the authors argues that the logic of the law, in many ways but not all, appears to be an economic one: that judges, for example, in interpreting the common law, act as if they were trying to maximize economic welfare.
Abstract: Richard A. Posner is probably the leading scholar in the rapidly growing field of the economics of law; he is also an extremely lucid writer. In this book, he applies economic theory to four areas of interest to students of social and legal institutions: the theory of justice, primitive and ancient social and legal institutions, the law and economics of privacy and reputation, and the law and economics of racial discrimination. The book is designed to display the power of economics to organize and illuminate diverse fields in the study of nonmarket behavior and institutions. A central theme is the importance of uncertainty to an understanding of social and legal institutions. Another major theme is that the logic of the law, in many ways but not all, appears to be an economic one: that judges, for example, in interpreting the common law, act as if they were trying to maximize economic welfare. Part I examines the deficiencies of utilitarianism as both a positive and a normative basis of understanding law, ethics, and social institutions, and suggests in its place the economist's concept of \"wealth maximization.\" Part II, an examination of the social and legal institutions of archaic societies, notably that of ancient Greece and primitive societies, argues that economic analysis holds the key to understanding such diverse features of these societies as reciprocal gift-giving, blood guilt, marriage customs, liability rules, and the prestige accorded to generosity. Many topics relevant to modern social and philosophical debate, including the origin of the state and the retributive theory of punishment, are addressed. Parts III and IV deal with more contemporary social andjurisprudential questions. Part III is an economic analysis of privacy and the statutory and common law rules that protect privacy and related interests-rules that include the tort law of privacy, assault and battery, and defamation. Finally, Part IV examines, again from an economic standpoint, the controversial areas of racial and sexual discrimination, with special reference to affirmative action. Both Part III and Part IV develop as a subtheme the issue of proper standards of constitutional adjudication by the Supreme Court.

300 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: One of the remarkable features of the turmoil surrounding the counting and recounting of votes in the State of Florida in the 2000 US Presidential Election was the frequency with which "the Rule of Law" was invoked Whether the antagonists in Florida knew it or not, they are in fact aspects of a venerable heritage of contestation that comes down to us as part and parcel of the Rule-of-Law tradition as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: One of the remarkable features of the turmoil surrounding the counting and recounting of votes in the State of Florida in the 2000 US Presidential Election was the frequency with which "the Rule of Law" was invoked Whether the antagonists in Florida knew it or not, they are in fact aspects of a venerable heritage of contestation that comes down to us as part and parcel of the Rule-of-Law tradition The fact that "the Rule of Law" has always evoked this contestation has led some to surmise that an old article by a linguistic philosopher, WB Gallie, entitled, "Essentially Contested Concepts" might afford the most fruitful basis for approaching the analysis of the term The Rule of Law is clearly an appraisive concept: it is deployed by almost all of its users to enter a favorable evaluation of the regimes or situations to which it applies

262 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is argued that information and communications technology, by facilitating surveillance, by vastly enhancing the collection, storage, and analysis of information, by enabling profiling, data mining and aggregation, has significantly altered the meaning of public information.
Abstract: Philosophical and legal theories of privacy have long recognized the relationship between privacy and information about persons. They have, however, focused on personal, intimate, and sensitive information, assuming that with public information, and information drawn from public spheres, either privacy norms do not apply, or applying privacy norms is so burdensome as to be morally and legally unjustifiable. Against this preponderant view, I argue that information and communications technology, by facilitating surveillance, by vastly enhancing the collection, storage, and analysis of information, by enabling profiling, data mining and aggregation, has significantly altered the meaning of public information. As a result, a satisfactory legal and philosophical understanding of a right to privacy, capable of protecting the important values at stake in protecting privacy, must incorporate, in addition to traditional aspects of privacy, a degree of protection for privacy in public.

254 citations

Performance
Metrics
No. of papers from the Journal in previous years
YearPapers
202316
202250
20218
202014
201911
201812