The moral obligation to obey law

Journal of Social Philosophy

Volumn 33, Issue 3, 2002, Pages 464-482

  Tunick, Mark ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84888263749     PISSN: 00472786     EISSN: 14679833     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/0047-2786.00153     Document Type: Article

References (36)

1. Walter Berns, "The Morality of Anger", in Hugo Bedau, ed., The Death Penalty in America, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), 331-41, at 339.
2. "The Authority of Law in the Predicament of Contemporary Social Theory", Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics and Public Policy 1(1984):115-38, at 118-20.
3. M. B. E. Smith, "Is There a Prima Facie Obligation to Obey the Law?" Yale Law Journal 82(1973):950-76, at 975;
4. Richard Wasserstrom, "The Obligation to Obey the Law", UCLA Law Review 10(1963):791-93;
5. Richard Brandt, "Utility and the Obligation to Obey the Law", in Sidney Hook, ed., Law and Philosophy (New York: NYU Press, 1964), 43-55, at 46;
6. Joseph Raz, "The Obligation to Obey: Revision and Tradition", Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics and Public Policy 1(1984):139-55.
7. Tom R. Tyler, Why People Obey the Law (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990), 46.
8. For criticism of Tyler's study, see Leslie Green, "Who Believes in Political Obligation?" in John T. Sanders and Jan Narveson, eds., For and Against the State (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 1996), 11-14.
9. See Richard Brandt, "The Concepts of Obligation and Duty", Mind 73(1964):374-93, at 391;
10. Richard Flathman, Political Obligation (New York: Atheneum, 1972), 34-39;
11. and A. J. Simmons, Moral Principles and Political Obligation (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979), 7-9.
12. See Hanna Pitkin, "Obligation and Consent I and II", American Political Science Review 59(December 1965):990-99 and 60(March 1966):39-52.
13. See Simmons, Moral Principles and Political Obligation, 39-43.
14. See Associated Press, "Poll: Most Californians Speed- And Feel No Guilt", San Jose Mercury News, February 19, 1993, p. 3B.
15. Cf. Joseph Raz, "The Obligation to Obey: Revision and Tradition", 149, noting that the contagion argument assumes publicity of the crime, but often offenses are not made public.
16. Cf. Richard Wasserstrom, "The Obligation to Obey the Law", 791-93.
17. George Klosko, The Principle of Fairness and Political Obligation (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1992);
18. H. L. A. Hart, "Are There Any Natural Rights?" Philosophical Review 64, no. 2(April 1955):175-91;
19. and John Rawls, "Legal Obligation and the Duty of Fair Play", in Sidney Hook, ed., Law and Philosophy (New York: NYU Press, 1964), 3-18, at 9-10.
20. See George Klosko, "The Moral Force of Political Obligations", American Political Science Review 84, no. 4(December 1990):1235-50.
21. Garrett Cullity, "Moral Free Riding", Philosophy and Public Affairs 24, no. 1(Winter 1995):3-34, at 22-23.
22. See George Klosko, "Presumptive Benefit, Fairness, and Political Obligation", Philosophy and Public Affairs 16, no. 3(Summer 1987):241-59.
23. A. D. M. Walker, "Political Obligation and the Argument from Gratitude", Philosophy and Public Affairs 17, no. 3(Summer 1988):191-211, at 192, 205, 207.
24. M. B. E. Smith, "Is There a Prima Facie Obligation to Obey the Law?" 953-54.
25. See also George Klosko, "Political Obligation and Gratitude", Philosophy and Public Affairs 18, no. 4(Fall 1989):352-58, at 354-58
26. (but see Walker's response, "Obligations of Gratitude and Political Obligation", Philosophy and Public Affairs 18, no. 4 [Fall 1989]: 359-64, at 363-64);
27. Another theory claiming to explain why we have a moral obligation to obey law is the natural duty theory, most convincingly articulated by Jeremy Waldron in "Special Ties and Natural Duties", Philosophy and Public Affairs 22, no. 1(Winter 1993):3-10.
28. For criticism of this theory, see Mark Tunick, "The Scope of Our Natural Duties", Journal of Social Philosophy 29(Fall 1998):87-96.
29. Richard Posner, "A Theory of Primitive Society, with Special Reference to Law", Journal of Law and Economics 23(April 1980):1-53.
30. One of the leading theorists among those providing economic explanations of the law distinguishes his account from accounts of the moral rationale for laws. See Richard Posner, "An Economic Theory of the Criminal Law", Columbia Law Review 85, no. 6(October 1985):1193-1231.
31. See Mark Tunick, Practices and Principles: Approaches to Ethical and Legal Judgment (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), chap. 5.
32. In Oliver v. U. S., the Supreme Court upheld a search in which police, without a search warrant, discovered marijuana after trespassing onto the defendant's private property and inspecting an open field about a mile from the defendant's house. "No Trespassing" signs were posted. The Court ruled that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy against government searches of one's private property beyond the curtilage of one's home (466 U. S. 170, 1984).
33. In U. S. v. Dunn (480 U. S. 294, 1987), the Court upheld a search in which Drug Enforcement Agency agents crossed several barbed-wire fences to inspect a barn. The Court ruled that the barn was not part of the curtilage of the home.
34. 230 NY 239
35. NE 889 (1921).
36. Cf. J. D. Mabbott, "Punishment", Mind 49(1939):152-67.