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Week 1
Tue, 20 Jan
Inheriting Responsibilities [download paper]
David Miller
Professor of Political Theory, University of Oxford , and fellow of Nuffield College
The paper deals with the question of national responsibility for infringements of rights of other peoples. In particular, the paper examines the question whether such responsibility can be ‘inherited’, i.e. whether one generation should be required to compensate for the crimes of earlier generations.
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Week 2
Tue, 27 Jan
Rescuing Justice from Constructivism
G.A. Cohen
Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory, University of Oxford , and fellow of All Souls College
The paper draws upon a previous paper, Facts and Principles [download]. (This is an expanded version of an article that appeared recently in Philosophy and Public Affairs).Discussion will start by rehearsing sections s and m of ‘Facts and Principles’, and will then focus on sections 3 and 4 of ‘Rescuing Justice from Constructivism’.
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Week 3
Tue, 3 Feb
Participant Understanding in Legal Theory
Michael Giudice
Visiting research student, Keble College , Oxford
From the author: ‘I aim to investigate the extent to which contemporary accounts of the normativity of law successfully recognize the diversity of participants in life under law.'
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Week 4
Tue, 10 Feb
Fussy People and the Limits of Authority [download paper]
Dimitrios Kyritsis
Doctoral student, Brasenose College , Oxford
Joseph Raz’s theory of authority states that authoritative directives be identifiable by reference to social facts alone, without resort to moral considerations (sources thesis). The paper will argue that a moral component is an essential part of the identification of authoritative directives. To this effect, it will focus on the attitudes of the ‘fussy people’ toward practical authorities in general and toward law in particular.
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Week 5
Tue, 17 Feb
Rights to Exit and Rights to Eject
Dwight Newman
Doctoral student, St John’s College , Oxford
Some theorists have recently used the supposition that group members should have exit rights to argue for the liberalization of illiberal groups. I will offer an argument that these theorists distort the role of exit, that rights of exit are not always necessary in all groups, and that group rights to eject members need to be contemplated more seriously.
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Week 6
Tue, 24 Feb
Legal Realism and Legal Positivism Reconsidered – Again [download paper]
Danny Priel
Doctoral student, Magdalen College , Oxford
The paper examines Brian Leiter’s thesis presented in a series of papers that the legal realists were tacit hard legal positivists. A representative article is ‘Legal Realism and Legal Positivism Reconsidered’, Ethics 111 (2001): 278-301.
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Week 7
Tue, 2 Mar
Justifying the Right to Self Defence:
The Problem of Self Preference
Shlomit Wallerstein
Doctoral student, Balliol College , Oxford
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Week 8
Wed, 10 Mar
The Limited Modesty of Subsidiarity
Nick Barber
Fellow of Trinity College , Oxford
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