Law & Society Blog

The outcome of a stronger analysis, I think, is that while total utilitarianism cannot be soundly accused of absurdity, it may be lacking in other ways.

What makes a legitimate democratic government? The administration believes that as long as it means well and seeks to protect us, it cannot lose legitimacy. But isn’t it the restraint on the government’s actions placed by the constitution and by the rights of citizens, a restraint that operates whether the government means well or not?
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It has been a while since I read the French declaration of rights, but I went back and looked it up today. It’s a worthy read that I’d like to share with you, to celebrate Bastille Day, the holiday commemorating the start of the French Revolution. Notice particularly Articles 4 and 5: elegant expressions of […]

According to the NYT:After months of resistance, the White House agreed Thursday to allow a secret intelligence court to review the legality of the National Security Agency’s program to conduct wiretaps without warrants on Americans suspected of having ties to terrorists…. The plan, brokered over the last three weeks in negotiations between Senator Arlen Specter and senior White House officials, including President Bush himself, would apparently leave the secretive intelligence court free to consider the case in closed proceedings, without the kind of briefs and oral arguments that are usually part of federal court consideration of constitutional issues.

Over at X-Philosophy, posts are centered around the Knobe effect like tornados around Kansas. The Knobe effect is essentially the idea that moral intuitions muddle with peoples’s attributions of intention to the acts of others. (I’ve offered some philosophical objections there previously. Rise from your grave, Kohlberg.) For various reasons, the effect is quite puzzling.
Recently, […]

Cory Doctorow has posted the final installment of his new short story “I, Row Boat” on Craphound.

The Financial Times reports a sharp reversal of the administration’s policies with respect to the Guantanamo Bay detainees. Here is a taste:
The White House confirmed on Tuesday that the Pentagon had decided, in a major policy shift, that all detainees held in US military custody around the world are entitled to protection under the Geneva […]

Floyd Rudmin explains why the NSA’s large-scale data mining operations are extremely unlikely to uncover terrorists, unless we assume a very high base rate of terrorists.

This World Cup’s final will be remembered for Zidane’s fall from grace.

Check out this collection of about 240 classic authors and their works.