Moral Implications Concerning Case Study 1.1

Journal of Moral Philosophy, 2017

This review article critically examines R. A. Duff and Stuart P. Green’s wide-ranging Philosophical Foundations of Criminal Law. The book captures well a crucial debate at the heart of its topic: is morality a key for understanding criminal law? I first consider legal moralism arguments answering this question in the affirmative and argue they should be rejected. I next consider alternatives to argue that philosophers of criminal law should look beyond legal moralism for more compelling theories about criminal law.

OUP Catalogue, 2006

International Review of Law and Economics, 1988

Several corruption scandals involving police, judges, or other law enforcement officials seem to surface every year in the United States. Inevitably, the official explanation is that such corruption is an individualized phenomenon involving a few "rotten apples." Thomas Wicker, a Louisiana judge, in commenting on the large number of charges brought against judges in the last few years, claimed, for instance, that "most judges are honest and conscientious. The discipline process is taking care of a few bad apples" (Gest 1983, p. 42). Similarly, recent police corruption in Miami produced the following explanation: "Investigators say they believe that only a small percentage of Dade County's police officers are involved in criminal activity. But authorities agree that even a few bad apples is more than enough" (emphasis added, Anderson and Prout 1985, p. 32). Yet, every detailed study of corruption in law enforcement rejects this "bad apple" theory of corruption. Thus, New York City's Knapp Commission concluded that "police corruption was found to be an extensive, department wide phenomenon, indulged in to some degree by a sizable majority of those on the force" (1972, p. 61), despite a virtually "official Department doctrine" that "any policeman found to be corrupt must promptly be denounced as a rotten apple in an otherwise clean barrel" (1972, p. 6).' In all likelihood, the corruption that is exposed each year reveals only a small part of the illegal activities by law enforcement officials. After all, these are only the ones who get caught. Even if a similar number of crimes by public officials were cleared by arrest as crimes in general, the total level of corruption would be substantial. But there are several reasons to believe that the crimes corrupt public officials commit are considerably less likely to be exposed than private sector crime. Indeed, corruption is a direct consequence of the incentives that law enforcement officials face. An alternative to the rotten apple theory of corruption is offered here, one that emphasizes these institutionalized incentives. Corruption by law enforcement officials is a black market for the property rights over which those officials have been given discretionary allocative power (Benson 1981a).2 This discretion arises because of the common pool characteristics of law enforcement resources. It means that rather than assigning rights in reflection of political demands, rights can be sold to the highest bidder. Police, judges, and prosecutors are not monitored closely, again because of incentives arising from common pool problems, so self-interest may dominate and corruption results.

Res Philosophica, 2020

When addressing the burdens borne by victims of police wrongdoing, we often overlook moral harms in focusing on the physical and psychological harms that they suffer. These moral harms undermine the moral status of the victim, her ability to consistently pursue the values she endorses, and her character. Victimhood is a morally significant social role. Vic-timhood imposes normative standards that measure the moral or political status of victim. Conforming to these standards affects our assessment of the conduct of the victim and her moral standing. Considering the victims' role provides important insights into contemporary practices of policing in the United States. The physical and verbal acts of the police often force race-based degradation upon racially subordinated groups. There is often no morally good way out of racially discriminatory encounters when the choice is to degrade oneself or suffer violence or even death. Worse, how we respond to the threat of police violence morally undermines our relationships with those we would keep safe from police violence.

Socrates. Rīga Stradiņš University Faculty of Law Electronic Scientific Journal of Law, 2023

Criminal law, like other branches of law, is subject to the same moral principles, however, it is in criminal cases that a judge often resorts to ethical categories, since the type of punishment imposed may affect not only the restriction of the accused's fundamental rights and freedoms, but also the future security of society. The purpose of the Article is to analyse the phenomena of morality and law as related categories in the administration of justice in criminal cases, and the importance of maintaining a balance between them when assessing evidence and imposing punishment in order to render a fair and impartial court decision. Given the peculiarities of the goal, the author has chosen a systematic approach based on general scientific and special scientific research methods, including systemic and structural, formal legal, comparative legal and other methods. Based on the legal analysis of current Ukrainian case law, the author identifies the real ethical challenges, which a judge faces when considering criminal cases and how to overcome them, resulting in a moral and fair decision supported by the law. The author also focusses on the insufficient coverage of numerous moral challenges in criminal cases among Ukrainian judges and provides suggestions on possible measures to improve educational activities in this area.

2008

Of all the features of social organization, criminal justice has proved the most resistant to the effect of reasoned deliberation and discussion about the nature of the good society and the good polity."

2010

This article analyzes private law enforcement in an environment with corruption. The effect of corruption is studied both under the assumption of monopolistic enforcement by a single private enforcement agency and under the assumption of competitive enforcement by many private enforcers.

Law, Ethics and Philosophy

This is a response to five critiques of my 2018 book The Realm of Criminal Law, by Michelle Dempsey, Kimberley Brownlee, Roberto Gargarella, Tatjana Hörnle, and Gustavo Beade. Topics covered include the idea of a "public wrong"; the usefulness of the analogy I draw between criminal law and codes of professional ethics; how criminal law can function in polities characterized by deep cultural and normative differences; what scope there is for thick principles of criminalization; and whether offenders have a "right to be prosecuted".

Legal Theory, 2020

An influential view in recent philosophy of punishment is that the apparatus of criminal justice should be geared at least in part to state censure of wrongdoing. I argue that if it were to be so geared, such an apparatus would make ambitious claims to authority, and that the legitimacy of the relevant state would then depend on whether those claims can be vindicated. This paper looks first at what kind of authority is being claimed by this apparatus. The criminal law, I argue, cannot merely be thought of as claiming a right to rule and to be obeyed. Rather, its authority is better understood as the authority of moral oversight: a power to alter, at will (though within certain limits), citizens' liability to answer for their compliance with-and to be officially censured for their failure to comply with-a designated set of pre-existing moral reasons. The paper then looks at whether a state could realistically be expected to possess such authority-that is, whether a state that claims to have such a power could ever be legitimate.