CENTRAL ISSUES IN JURISPRUDENCE JUSTICE, LAW AND RIGHTS Second Edition N. E. SIMMONDS, MA, LL.M., Ph.d. Fellow of Corpus Christi Collège Reader in jurisprudence in the Université of Cambridge LONDON SWEET & MAXWELL 2002
CONTENTS Préface to the second édition Introduction 1 Doctrine and theory 3 The centrality of jurisprudence 6 Introduction to Part 1: Justice 9 Subjectivism 11 Other options 13 Neutrality 14 1. Utilitarianism 17 Why be a utilitarian? 19 Liberalism, utility and moral neutrality 21 Uncertainty 25 Conséquences 26 Utility and distribution 29 Act and rule utilitarianism 35 Rule utilitarianism as a jurisprudential theory 37 Liberalism and préférences 40 Rights and utility 44 Selected reading 45 2. Rawls 47 Introduction 47 Reflective equilibrium 48 The original position 51 Criticism of utilitarianism 52 The thin theory of the good 56 Two principles 58 The différence principle 59 Choosing the différence principle 62 Greater equality? 65 The first principle of justice 66 Political liberalism 70 Selected reading 76 v
viii Central Issues in Jurisprudence 3. Nozick 77 An arbitrary starting point? 79 Comparison with Rawls 82 Principle of acquisition 83 Pale self-ownership 86 Patterned distribution and historical entitlement 89 Markets and equality 91 Giving content to rights 94 Selected reading 96 4. Finnis on objective goods 97 Goods and desires 98 Objective goods 100 Goods and human nature 102 Prudence and morality 103 Incommensurability of goods 106 The common good ' 109 Law 110 Hume's return? 110 Justice 113 Basic rights 115 Selected reading 118 Introduction to Part 2: Law 119 Natural law and légal positivism 123 5. Hart 127 Légal positivism 127 What positivists do and do not claim 128 Normativity and reductionism 131 Rules and the internai point of view 133 Powers and secondary rules 136 The légal system 139 Adjudication 142 Distinguishing cases 146 Légal obligation and the internai point of view 149 A différent positivism? 152 Rules and formai justice 156 The minimum content of natural law 158 The nature of conceptual analysis 162 Hart's theory as political philosophy 167 Légal doctrine and légal theory 174
Contents ix Selected reading 179 6. Dworkin 181 Rules and principles 182 Principles and positivism 184 The rule of récognition and the soundest theory 188 Constructive interprétation 191 Semantic théories 198 Some scepticisms 203 The "Threshold Objection" 206 Choosing a légal theory 210 Law as integrity 214 Order, theory and community 219 Selected reading 222 7. Fuller 223 Facts, values and purposes 223 Good and bad purposes 225 The eight principles 226 Law and purpose 228 Kramer's criticisms (part one) 229 The point of law 233 Internai and external moralities 234 Kramer's criticisms (part two) 238 Recapitulation and reconstruction 242 Other worlds 244 Baselines for comparison 247 Guidance by rule and by aspiration 249 Selected reading 253 Part 3: Rights 255 8. The analysis of rights 255 Some fundamental ideas 256 Légal and moral rights 263 Hard atoms and soft molécules 267 Rights as complex and peremptory 271 A slight digression 274 Hohfeld's analysis 275 Kantian and Hohfeldian rights compared 280 Internai complexity restored? 283 Is the absence of a duty a right? 288 Internai complexity without peremptory force? 291
Central Issues in Jurisprudence Rights against nobody? 294 Rights against spécifie persons? 296 Levels of abstraction 297 Peremptory force: exclusionary or conclusory? 298 Exclusion upon exclusion 300 One set of reasons: two perspectives 301 Exclusion abandoned 303 The "will" and "interest" théories 304 MacCormick's criticisms 310 Selected reading 312 Index