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69Is Law’s Conventionality Consistent with Law’s Objectivity?Res Publica 14 (4): 241-252. 2008.Legal positivism’s multi-faceted insistence on the separability of law and morality includes an insistence on the thoroughly conventional status of legal norms as legal norms. Yet the positivist affirmation of the conventionality of law may initially seem at odds with the mind-independence of the existence and contents and implications of legal norms. Mind-independence, a central aspect of legal objectivity, has been seen by some theorists as incompatible with the mind-dependence of conventions.…Read more
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50G. A. Cohen's Conception of Law: A CritiqueRatio Juris 2 (3): 283-298. 1989.This note will challenge G. A. Cohen's view of the interaction between legal systems and economic structures; such interaction raises the so‐called problem of legality, which Cohen sets out to solve in the eighth chapter of Karl Marx's Theory of History . In the course of this note, we shall interrogate the presumed rigor of Cohen's theory of base/superstructure relations, to which his understanding of law is central. His approach will not be simply destroyed, but will be resituated in a network…Read more
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1The Big Bad Wolf: Legal Positivism and Its DetractorsAmerican Journal of Jurisprudence 48 1-10. 2003.
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35Critical Legal Theory and the Challenge of Feminism: A Philosophical ReconceptionRowman & Littlefield Publishers. 1994.Critical Legal Theory and the Challenge of Feminism provides both a thorough overview and a refinement of the ideas that underlie critical legal theory. Arguing with the rigor of analytic philosophy and the alertness to paradoxes characteristic of deconstructive philosophy, Matthew Kramer begins by exploring the tangled relations between metaphysics and politics. He then attempts to transform the discourses of the critical legal studies movement by laying out a framework of five general themes: …Read more
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31Hobbes and the Paradoxes of Political Origins.John Locke and the Origins of Private Property: Philosophical Explorations of Individualism, Community, and EqualityPhilosophical Review 108 (1): 146. 1999.Each of these two volumes grew out of what was originially intended to be a single chapter in a larger study of seventeenth-century liberalism. Although there is a strong degree of stylistic and methodological continuity between the two, neither book presupposes any familiarity with the other. I will therefore consider them separately.
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117Working on the inside: Ronald Dworkin's moral philosophy (review)Analysis 73 (1): 118-129. 2013.
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89Legal and moral obligationIn Martin P. Golding & William A. Edmundson (eds.), The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory, Blackwell. pp. 179--190. 2004.This chapter contains section titled: The Obligation‐to‐Obey‐the‐Law What the Law Claims Matters of Form References Further Reading.
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59How moral principles can enter into the lawLegal Theory 6 (1): 83-108. 2000.In recent times, especially in the pages of this journal, the debate between the proponents of the two principal species of legal positivism has gained new vigor. Specifically, some champions of Exclusive Legal Positivism have sophisticatedly challenged the Inclusive Legal Positivists’ claim that moral principles can figure among the criteria by which the officials of a legal system ascertain the law. The present essay attempts to parry the most formidable of those recent challenges. 1
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99Theories of Rights: Is There a Third Way?Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 27 (2): 281-310. 2005.Some important recent articles, including one in this journal, have sought to devise theories of rights that can transcend the longstanding debate between the Interest Theory and the Will Theory. The present essay argues that those efforts fail and that the Interest Theory and the Will Theory withstand the criticisms that have been levelled against them. To be sure, the criticisms have been valuable in that they have prompted the amplification and clarification of the two dominant theories of ri…Read more
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16Dogmas and Distortions: Legal Positivism DefendedOxford Journal of Legal Studies 21 (4): 673-701. 2001.In a recent full‐length review of Matthew Kramer's In Defense of Legal Positivism, David Dyzenhaus has attacked legal positivists' accounts of adjudication and their views of the relationship between law and morality. The present essay defends legal positivism against his strictures, by arguing that he has misunderstood specific texts and the general lines of enquiry which the positivists pursue
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56A debate over rights: philosophical enquiriesClarendon Press. 1998.This collection of essays forms a lively debate over the fundamental characteristics of legal and moral rights. The essays examine whether rights fundamentally protect individuals' interests or whether they instead fundamentally enable individuals to make choices.
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2On the Separability of Law and MoralityCanadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 17 (2): 315-335. 2004.If there is one doctrine distinctively associated with legal positivism, it is the separability of law and morality. Both in opposition to classical natural-law thinkers and in response to more recent theorists such as Ronald Dworkin and Lon Fuller, positivists have endeavored to impugn any number of ostensibly necessary connections between the legal domain and the moral domain. Such is the prevailing view of legal positivism among people familiar with jurisprudence. During the past couple of de…Read more
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145Moral Rights and the Limits of the Ought‐Implies‐Can Principle: Why Impeccable Precautions are No ExcuseInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 48 (4). 2005.This essay argues against the commonly held view that "ought" implies "can" in the domain of morality. More specifically, I contest the notion that nobody should ever be held morally responsible for failing to avoid the infliction of any harm that he or she has not been able to avoid through all reasonably feasible precautions in the carrying out of some worthwhile activity. The article explicates the concept of a moral right in order to show why violations of moral rights can occur even when no…Read more
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145What Is Legal Philosophy?Metaphilosophy 43 (1-2): 125-134. 2012.This article delineates some of the main issues that are debated by philosophers of law. It explores the connections between legal philosophy and other areas of philosophy, while also seeking to specify the distinctiveness of many of the concerns that have preoccupied philosophers of law. It illustrates its abstract points with examples focused on the separability of law and morality, the nature of the rule of law, the nature of rights, justifications for the imposition of punishment, and the id…Read more
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4In the realm of legal and moral philosophy: critical encountersSt. Martin's Press. 1999.In this wide-ranging investigation of many prominent issues in contemporary legal, political, and moral philosophy, Matthew Kramer combines penetrating critiques with original theorizing as he examines the writings of numerous major theorists (including Ronald Dworkin, H. L. A. Hart, Alan Gewirth, David Lyons, Ronald Coase, John Finnis, Jules Coleman, Anthony Kronman, and Richard Posner). While Kramer argues with the rigor that is the hallmark of the tradition of analytic philosophy, his inquiri…Read more
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39God, Greed, and Flesh: Saint Paul, Thomas Hobbes, and the Nature/Nurture DebateSouthern Journal of Philosophy 30 (4): 51-66. 1992.
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13The legacy of H.L.A. Hart: legal, political, and moral philosophy (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2008.This book brings together contributions from seventeen of the world's foremost legal and political philosophers to examine the lasting influence of H.L.A. Hart. The essays explore the major subjects of Hart's work: general jurisprudence, criminal responsibility, rights, justice, causation and the foundations of liberalism.
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17Rights, wrongs, and responsibilities (edited book)Palgrave. 2001.In this wide-ranging investigation of leading issues in contemporary legal and political philosophy, distinguished philosophers and legal theorists tackle issues such as the rights of animals, the role of public-policy considerations in legal reasoning, the appropriateness of compensation as a means of rectifying mishaps and misdeeds, the extent of individuals' responsibility for the consequences of their choices, and the culpability of failed attempts to commit crimes.
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301Freedom: a philosophical anthology (edited book)Blackwell. 2007.Edited by leading contributors to the literature, Freedom: An Anthology is the most complete anthology on social, political and economic freedom ever compiled. Offers a broad guide to the vast literature on social, political and economic freedom. Contains selections from the best scholarship of recent decades as well as classic writings from Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and Kant among others. General and sectional introductions help to orient the reader. Compiled and edited by three important contrib…Read more
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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.