Where Law and Morality Meet by Matthew H Kramer

Where Law and Morality Meet by Matthew H Kramer

How are law and morality connected, how do they interact, and in what ways are they distinct? In Part I of this book, Matthew Kramer argues that moral principles can enter into the law of any jurisdiction. He contends that legal officials can invoke moral principles as laws for resolving disputes, and that they can also invoke them as threshold tests which ordinary laws must satisfy. In opposition to many other theorists, Kramer argues that these functions of moral principles are consistent with all the essential characteristics of any legal system. Part II reaffirms the legal positivist argument that law and morality are separable, arguing against the position of natural-law theory, which portrays legal requirements as a species of moral requirements. Kramer contends that even though the existence of a legal system in any sizeable society is essential for the realization of fundamental moral values, law is not inherently moral either in its effects or in its motivational underpinnings. In the final part, Kramer contests the widespread view that people whose conduct is meticulously careful cannot be held morally responsible for harmful effects of their actions. Through this argument, he reveals that fault-independent liability is present even more prominently in morality than in the law. Through a variety of arguments, Where Law and Morality Meet highlights both some surprising affinities and some striking divergences between morality and law.

That Kramer's prior work in this area has already received so much critical attention itself suggests that anyone interested in contemporary legal theory would benefit from this book's careful review of the contemporary lanscape of legal positivism and its subtle and often pursuasive arguments advancing those horizons* Brian D. Berry, Law & Phiosophy Program, University of Texas *

Matthew H. Kramer is Professor of Legal and Political Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, Fellow of Churchill College, and Director of the Cambridge Forum for Legal and Political Philosophy.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780199274192
ISBN 10	0199274193
Title	Where Law and Morality Meet
Author	Matthew H Kramer
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Year published	2004-10-21
Number of pages	312
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable