Ted Sichelman (University of San Diego): Publications

408

The Order of Physical Law

First-order legal relations specify the duties of legal actors. For instance, the duty not to trespass derives from a first-order law. Second-order legal relations generally concern the intentional, volitional acts of legal actors exercising legal powers to change first-order laws or legal relations. For example, a land owner may exercise a second-order power to change another legal actor’s duty not to trespass to a legal permission to enter the owner’s land. This article adapts the notion of le…Read more
First-order legal relations specify the duties of legal actors. For instance, the duty not to trespass derives from a first-order law. Second-order legal relations generally concern the intentional, volitional acts of legal actors exercising legal powers to change first-order laws or legal relations. For example, a land owner may exercise a second-order power to change another legal actor’s duty not to trespass to a legal permission to enter the owner’s land. This article adapts the notion of legal order to propose a theory of first- and higher-order physical laws, contending that current physical theories implicitly (and wrongly) assume that essentially all physical processes can be modeled using first-order laws. Incorporating second- and higher-order structures from legal models into physical theories provides a novel approach for framing problems in physics, such as the process of quantum measurement. Specifically, quantum measurement is better explained as a fundamentally second-order physical process, which alters the underlying first-order physical “microlaws” governing the evolution of the quantum system.

Governance and Laws of Nature Philosophy of Physics The Nature of Law and Legal Systems
35

Wesley Hohfeld a Century Later: Edited Work, Select Personal Papers, and Original Commentaries (edited book)
with Shyamkrishna Balganesh and Henry E. Smith

Cambridge University Press. 2021.

Wesley Hohfeld is known the world over as the legal theorist who famously developed a taxonomy of legal concepts. His contributions to legal thinking have stood the test of time, remaining relevant nearly a century after they were first published. Yet, little systematic attention has been devoted to exploring the full significance of his work. Beginning with a lucid, annotated version of Hohfeld's most important article, this volume is the first to offer a comprehensive look at the scope, signif…Read more
Wesley Hohfeld is known the world over as the legal theorist who famously developed a taxonomy of legal concepts. His contributions to legal thinking have stood the test of time, remaining relevant nearly a century after they were first published. Yet, little systematic attention has been devoted to exploring the full significance of his work. Beginning with a lucid, annotated version of Hohfeld's most important article, this volume is the first to offer a comprehensive look at the scope, significance, reach, intricacies, and shortcomings of Hohfeld's work. Featuring insights from leading legal thinkers, the book also contains many of Hohfeld's previously unseen personal papers, shedding new light on the complex motivations behind Hohfeld's projects. Together, these selected papers and original essays reveal a portrait of a multifaceted and ambitious intellectual who did not live long enough to see the impact of his ideas on the study of law.

Ted Sichelman

The Order of Physical Law

Wesley Hohfeld a Century Later: Edited Work, Select Personal Papers, and Original Commentaries (edited book) with Shyamkrishna Balganesh and Henry E. Smith Cambridge University Press. 2021.

Wesley Hohfeld a Century Later: Edited Work, Select Personal Papers, and Original Commentaries (edited book)
with Shyamkrishna Balganesh and Henry E. Smith

Cambridge University Press. 2021.