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98Objectivity and the Rule of LawCambridge University Press. 2007.What is objectivity? What is the rule of law? Are the operations of legal systems objective? If so, in what ways and to what degrees are they objective? Does anything of importance depend on the objectivity of law? These are some of the principal questions addressed by Matthew H. Kramer in this lucid and wide-ranging study that introduces readers to vital areas of philosophical enquiry. As Kramer shows, objectivity and the rule of law are complicated phenomena, each comprising a number of distin…Read more
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20Why The Axioms and Theorems of Arithmetic are not Legal NormsOxford Journal of Legal Studies 27 (3): 555-562. 2007.Ronald Dworkin has long criticized legal positivists for their efforts to distinguish between legal and non-legal standards of conduct that are incumbent on people. Recently, Dworkin has broached this criticism in his hostile account of the debates between Incorporationist Legal Positivists and Exclusive Legal Positivists. Specifically, he has maintained that Incorporationists cannot avoid the unpalatable conclusion that the axioms and theorems of arithmetic are legal norms. This article shows w…Read more
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101The Purgative Rationale for the Death Penalty: Replies to Steiker and DanaherCriminal Law and Philosophy 9 (2): 379-394. 2015.This article defends my 2011 book “The Ethics of Capital Punishment” against the thoughtful critiques written by Carol Steiker and John Danaher respectively. It does not attempt to respond to every point of contention in the two critiques, but concentrates instead on a few of the main points from each of them
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2Freedom and the rule of lawIn Jerzy Stelmach & Bartosz Brożek (eds.), The normativity of law, Copernicus Center Press. 2011.
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51Scrupulousness Without Scruples: A Critique of Lon Fuller and His DefendersOxford Journal of Legal Studies 18 (2): 235-263. 1998.Lon Fuller is best known among legal philosophers for his efforts to highlight the intrinsically moral nature of law. To show that his efforts come to nought, the present essay ponders not only the ideas advanced by Fuller himself, but also some of the defences of him that have been mounted in recent years. Those defences centre on his notion of reciprocity, according to which the officials in a genuine legal system have effectively undertaken to respect die confines of the mandates which they a…Read more
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21A Debate over RightsMind 109 (436): 954-956. 2000.The authors of this book engage in essay form in a lively debate over the fundamental characteristics of legal and moral rights. They examine whether rights fundamentally protect individuals' interests or whether they instead fundamentally enable individuals to make choices. In the course of this debate the authors address many questions through which they clarify, though not finally resolve, a number of controversial present-day political debates, including those over abortion, euthanasia, and …Read more
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18Retributivism in the Spirit of FinnisIn John Keown & Robert P. George (eds.), Reason, morality, and law: the philosophy of John Finnis, Oxford University Press. pp. 167. 2013.
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137Moral Realism as a Moral DoctrineWiley-Blackwell. 2009.In this major new work, Matthew Kramer seeks to establish two main conclusions. On the one hand, moral requirements are strongly objective. On the other hand, the objectivity of ethics is itself an ethical matter that rests primarily on ethical considerations. Moral realism - the doctrine that morality is indeed objective - is a moral doctrine. Major new volume in our new series _New Directions in Ethics_ Takes on the big picture - defending the objectivity of ethics whilst rejecting the grounds…Read more
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7Hobbes and the paradoxes of political originsSt. Martin's Press. 1997.This book expounds an analytical method that focuses on paradoxes - a method originally associated with deconstructive philosophy, but bearing little resemblance to the interpretive techniques that have come to be designated as 'deconstruction' in literary studies. The book then applies its paradox-focused method as it undertakes a sustained investigation of Thomas Hobbe's political philosophy. Hobbes's theory of the advent and purpose of government turns out to reveal the impossibility of the v…Read more
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14Throwing light on the role of moral principles in the law: Further reflectionsLegal Theory 8 (1): 115-143. 2002.
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10Contents Versus Existence-Conditions: A Brief Reply to John MorssAmerican Journal of Jurisprudence 53 (1): 101-103. 2008.
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62Reason Without Reasons: A Critique of Alan Gewirth's Moral PhilosophySouthern Journal of Philosophy 34 (3): 301-315. 2010.
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52Crime, punishment, and responsibility: the jurisprudence of Antony Duff (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2011.This volume collects essays by leading criminal law theorists to explore the principal themes in his work.
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28Of final things: Morality as one of the ultimate determinants of legal validity (review)Law and Philosophy 24 (1): 47-97. 2004.
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42Michael Moore on Torture, Morality, and LawRatio Juris 25 (4): 472-495. 2012.During the past few decades, Michael Moore has written incisively on an array of matters concerning the relationships between law and morality. While reflecting on those relationships, he has plumbed the nature of morality itself in impressive depth. Among the topics which he has addressed, the problem of torture has been prominent and controversial. It is a problem, moreover, that has led to some of his most searching enquiries into the character of moral obligations. In the present essay I tak…Read more
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In Defense of Legal Positivism: Law without TrimmingsPhilosophical Quarterly 50 (200): 422-425. 2000.
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71The Quality of FreedomOxford University Press. 2008.In his provocative book Matthew Kramer offers a systematic theory of freedom that challenges most of the other major contemporary treatments of the topic.
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38Freedom, unfreedom and Skinner's HobbesJournal of Political Philosophy 9 (2). 2001.In an array of writings stretching over the better part of two decades, Quentin Skinner has repeatedly challenged the modern conception of negative liberty developed by Isaiah Berlin and many other theorists. He has sought to draw attention to some once vibrant but now largely peripheral traditions of thought—especially the civic‐republican or neo‐Roman tradition—in order to highlight what he sees as the limitedness and inadequacies of the currently dominant ways of thinking about freedom. The p…Read more
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75Torture and Moral Integrity: A Philosophical EnquiryOxford University Press. 2014.The morality of interrogational torture has been the subject of heated debate in recent years. In explaining why torture is morally wrong, Kramer engages in deep philosophical reflections on the nature of morality and on moral conflicts
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Consistency is hardly ever enough: reflections on Hillel Steiner's methodologyIn Stephen De Wijze, Matthew H. Kramer & Ian Carter (eds.), Hillel Steiner and the Anatomy of Justice: Themes and Challenges, Routledge. 2009.
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26Review of Arthur Ripstein (ed.), Ronald Dworkin (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2008 (1). 2008.
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1338In Defense of HartIn Wil Waluchow & Stefan Sciaraffa (eds.), Philosophical Foundations of the Nature of Law, Oxford University Press. pp. 22. 2013.In Legality Scott Shapiro seeks to provide the motivation for the development of his own elaborate account of law by undertaking a critique of H.L.A. Hart's jurisprudential theory. Hart maintained that every legal system is underlain by a rule of recognition through which officials of the system identify the norms that belong to the system as laws. Shapiro argues that Hart's remarks on the rule of recognition are confused and that his model of lawis consequently untenable. Shapiro contends that …Read more
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87No Better Reasons: A Reply to Alan GewirthSouthern Journal of Philosophy 36 (1): 131-139. 2010.Alan Gewirth has propounded a moral theory which commits him to the view that prescriptions can appropriately be addressed to people who have neither any moral reasons nor any prudential reasons to follow the prescriptions. We highlight the strangeness of Gewirth's position and then show that it undermines his attempt to come up with a supreme moral principle
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174John Locke and the origins of private property: philosophical explorations of individualism, community, and equalityCambridge University Press. 1997.John Locke's labor theory of property is one of the seminal ideas of political philosophy and served to establish its author's reputation as one of the leading social and political thinkers of all time. Through it Locke addressed many of his most pressing concerns, and earned a reputation as an outstanding spokesman for political individualism - a reputation that lingers widely despite some partial challenges that have been raised in recent years. In this major new study Matthew Kramer offers an…Read more
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89Where law and morality meetOxford University Press. 2004.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…Read more