Conscience (rule) utilitarianism and the criminal law
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compare a society's morality with its legal system, and explain whether and in what way a conscience-utilitarian theory of morality has implications for what a morally acceptable system of criminal law might be and what a utility-based criminal law would look like, as compared with the present criminal law in the U.S.
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Abstract: In this paper I wish first to contrast a society's morality with its legal system, and then to explain (1) whether and in what way a conscience (rule)-utilitarian theory o f morality has implications for what a morally acceptable system of criminal law might be and (2) what a utility-based criminal law would look like, as compared with the present criminal law in the U.S. Begin with an explanation of \"a person's morality\". I propose we explain this as comprising (1) his intrinsic aversions to doing certain types of things (like telling lies), (2) his disposition to feel guilt or remorse if he acts contrary to these aversions, (3) his disposition to feel disapproval indignation, coolness toward other persons who do (provided, in the cases o f (2) and (3) there is no \"excuse\" see below), (4) along with a belief that these attitudes are justified in some appropriate way. On this view o f \"morality;' If a person says, \"A is morally wrong,\" he is expressing an unfavourable syndrome of this sort toward actions o f the kind A. A person's total syndrome of this sort, toward actions, is his conscience. T h e n a person holds a normative rule-utilitarian theory about morali ty if he affirms roughly (there are variations I and I shall
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Self-defense, justification, and excuse
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present six scenarios selon lesquels l'on doit tuer l'autre pour sauver sa vie, i.e., l'A.
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Setting penalties: What does rape deserve?
TL;DR: In this article, an application of the principle of just deserts to the setting of statutory penalties is presented, and the conclusion is that there should be no separate penalty for rape but that rape should be punished under the ordinary battery statutes.
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