Abstract: I develop an alternative to the two main views of law that have dominated legal thought. My view offers a novel account of how the actions of legal institutions make the law what it is, and a correspondingly novel account of how to interpret legal texts. According to my view, legal obligations are a certain subset of moral obligations. Legal institutions—legislatures, courts, administrative agencies—take actions that change our moral obligations. They do so by changing the morally relevant facts and circumstances, for example by changing people’s expectations, providing new options, or bestowing the blessing of the people’s representatives on particular schemes. My theory holds, very roughly, that the resulting moral obligations are legal obligations. I call this view the Moral Impact Theory because it holds that the law is the moral impact of the relevant actions of legal institutions. In this Essay, I elaborate and refine the theory and then illustrate and clarify its implications for legal interpretation. I also respond to important objections. author. Professor of Law and Associate Professor of Philosophy, UCLA; Faculty CoDirector, UCLA Law and Philosophy Program. For valuable discussions and comments on this paper or ancestors of it, I would like to thank Larry Alexander, Selim Berker, Mitch Berman, Jules Coleman, Ronald Dworkin, Les Green, Barbara Herman, Scott Hershovitz, Pamela Hieronymi, Ken Himma, Kinch Hoekstra, A.J. Julius, Frances Kamm, Sean Kelsey, Christine Korsgaard, Brian Leiter, Harry Litman, Andrei Marmor, Herb Morris, Steven Munzer, Derek Parfit, Stephen Perry, David Plunkett, Joseph Raz, Larry Sager, Scott Shapiro, Seana Shiffrin, Scott Soames, Larry Solum, Nicos Stavropoulos, and Jeremy Waldron. I am especially grateful to Andrea Ashworth, Seana Shiffrin, and Scott Shapiro for many invaluable conversations. Special thanks to Ben Eidelson and other editors of the Yale Law Journal for helpful suggestions. the moral impact theory of law
Publication Year: 2014
Publication Date: 2014-03-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 48
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