Rethinking the Reasonable Person

Rethinking the Reasonable Person
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages : 372
Release :
ISBN-10 : 019924782X
ISBN-13 : 9780199247820
Rating : 4/5 (2X Downloads)

Synopsis Rethinking the Reasonable Person by : Mayo Moran

The 'reasonable person' is used to assess the acceptability of behaviour in many areas of the law. This notion has attracted a great deal of criticism as it presupposes uncontested notions of 'normal' behaviour. This book explores whether there are deeper foundations to these criticisms.

The Limits of Blame

The Limits of Blame
Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Total Pages : 241
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780674980778
ISBN-13 : 0674980778
Rating : 4/5 (78 Downloads)

Synopsis The Limits of Blame by : Erin I. Kelly

Faith in the power and righteousness of retribution has taken over the American criminal justice system. Approaching punishment and responsibility from a philosophical perspective, Erin Kelly challenges the moralism behind harsh treatment of criminal offenders and calls into question our society’s commitment to mass incarceration. The Limits of Blame takes issue with a criminal justice system that aligns legal criteria of guilt with moral criteria of blameworthiness. Many incarcerated people do not meet the criteria of blameworthiness, even when they are guilty of crimes. Kelly underscores the problems of exaggerating what criminal guilt indicates, particularly when it is tied to the illusion that we know how long and in what ways criminals should suffer. Our practice of assigning blame has gone beyond a pragmatic need for protection and a moral need to repudiate harmful acts publicly. It represents a desire for retribution that normalizes excessive punishment. Appreciating the limits of moral blame critically undermines a commonplace rationale for long and brutal punishment practices. Kelly proposes that we abandon our culture of blame and aim at reducing serious crime rather than imposing retribution. Were we to refocus our perspective to fit the relevant moral circumstances and legal criteria, we could endorse a humane, appropriately limited, and more productive approach to criminal justice.

The Law's Flaws

The Law's Flaws
Author :
Publisher :
Total Pages : 228
Release :
ISBN-10 : 1848901992
ISBN-13 : 9781848901995
Rating : 4/5 (92 Downloads)

Synopsis The Law's Flaws by : Larry Laudan

This is a book about the law's failure as a system of empirical inquiry. While the US Supreme Court repeatedly says that the aim of a trial is to find out the truth about a crime, there is abundant evidence that many of the rules of evidence and legal procedure are not truth-conducive. Quite the contrary; many are truth-thwarting. Relevant evidence of defendant's guilt is often excluded; reasonable inferences from the available evidence are likewise often excluded. When a defendant elects not to testify, jurors are told to draw no inculpatory inferences from the former's refusal to be questioned. If evidence of prior crimes committed by the defendant is admitted (and often it is excluded), jurors are strictly told to use them only for deciding whether the defendant lied during his testimony and not as evidence of his guilt. Making matters worse, the most important evidence rule of all (saying that defendant can be convicted only if there are no reasonable doubts about his guilt) is monumentally vague; and judges are under firm instruction to decline jurors' frequent requests to explain what a 'reasonable doubt' is. Lastly, this book examines the fact that American courts collect little information about how often they convict the innocent and no information about how often they acquit the guilty. This is tragic because ignorance of the error rates in trials and in plea bargains means that citizens have no grounds for confidence in the judicial system; such a condition of non-transparency should be unacceptable in a democracy. Reform is urgent and this book sketches some of the necessary changes.

The Reasonable Person

The Reasonable Person
Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Total Pages : 217
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781009445627
ISBN-13 : 1009445626
Rating : 4/5 (27 Downloads)

Synopsis The Reasonable Person by : Valentin Jeutner

The first comprehensive account of the history and function of the common law's reasonable person.

Reasonableness and Law

Reasonableness and Law
Author :
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages : 462
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781402085000
ISBN-13 : 1402085001
Rating : 4/5 (00 Downloads)

Synopsis Reasonableness and Law by : Giorgio Bongiovanni

Reasonableness is at the centre of legal debate, both in academic circles and in practice. This unique reference work adopts an interdisciplinary perspective, merging jurisprudence, legal theory, political philosophy and the different branches of law. All aspects relating to reasonableness and law are addressed by the most prominent scholars in the field. In the first part of the book, the focus is on jurisprudential analyses of the concept of reasonableness and on its moral, political and constitutional implications. In the second part, reasonableness is examined in the different fields of law like Public, Private and International Law. Here in more detail the practical consequences of reasonableness are worked out, making this work of interest to practitioners as well as legal theorists.

Rethinking Criminal Law

Rethinking Criminal Law
Author :
Publisher :
Total Pages : 930
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0195136950
ISBN-13 : 9780195136951
Rating : 4/5 (50 Downloads)

Synopsis Rethinking Criminal Law by : George P. Fletcher

This is a reprint of a book first published by Little, Brown in 1978. George Fletcher is working on a new edition which will be published by OUP in three volumes, the first of which is scheduled to appear in January 2001. Rethinking Criminal Law is still perhaps the most influential and often cited theoretical work on American criminal law. This reprint will keep this classic work available until the new edition can be published.

Rethinking Life and Death

Rethinking Life and Death
Author :
Publisher : Macmillan
Total Pages : 268
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0312144016
ISBN-13 : 9780312144012
Rating : 4/5 (16 Downloads)

Synopsis Rethinking Life and Death by : Peter Singer

In a reassessment of the meaning of life and death, a noted philosopher offers a new definition for life that contrasts a world dependent on biological maintenance with one controlled by state-of-the-art medical technology.

Rethinking Homework

Rethinking Homework
Author :
Publisher : ASCD
Total Pages : 198
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781416626596
ISBN-13 : 141662659X
Rating : 4/5 (96 Downloads)

Synopsis Rethinking Homework by : Cathy Vatterott

In this updated edition, Cathy Vatterott examines the role homework has played in the culture of schooling over the years; how such factors as family life, the media, and "homework gap" issues based on shifting demographics have affected the homework controversy; and what recent research as well as common sense tell us about the effects of homework on student learning. She also explores how the current homework debate has been reshaped by forces including the Common Core, a pervasive media and technology presence, the mass hysteria of "achievement culture," and the increasing shift to standards-based and formative assessment. The best way to address the homework controversy is not to eliminate homework. Instead, the author urges educators to replace the old paradigm (characterized by long-standing cultural beliefs, moralistic views, and behaviorist philosophy) with a new paradigm based on the following elements: Designing high-quality homework tasks; Differentiating homework tasks; Deemphasizing grading of homework; Improving homework completion; and Implementing homework support programs. Numerous examples from teachers and schools illustrate the new paradigm in action, and readers will find useful new tools to start them on their own journey. The end product is homework that works—for all students, at all levels.

Rethinking Thin

Rethinking Thin
Author :
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages : 314
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781429923651
ISBN-13 : 1429923652
Rating : 4/5 (51 Downloads)

Synopsis Rethinking Thin by : Gina Kolata

In this eye-opening book, New York Times science writer Gina Kolata shows that our society's obsession with dieting and weight loss is less about keeping trim and staying healthy than about money, power, trends, and impossible ideals. Rethinking Thin is at once an account of the place of diets in American society and a provocative critique of the weight-loss industry. Kolata's account of four determined dieters' progress through a study comparing the Atkins diet to a conventional low-calorie one becomes a broad tale of science and society, of social mores and social sanctions, and of politics and power. Rethinking Thin asks whether words like willpower are really applicable when it comes to eating and body weight. It dramatizes what it feels like to spend a lifetime struggling with one's weight and fantasizing about finally, at long last, getting thin. It tells the little-known story of the science of obesity and the history of diets and dieting—scientific and social phenomena that made some people rich and thin and left others fat and miserable. And it offers commonsense answers to questions about weight, eating habits, and obesity—giving us a better understanding of the weight that is right for our bodies.

Rethinking Race

Rethinking Race
Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Total Pages : 241
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780674975668
ISBN-13 : 0674975669
Rating : 4/5 (68 Downloads)

Synopsis Rethinking Race by : Michael O. Hardimon

Many scholars and activists seek to eliminate “race”—the word and the concept—from our vocabulary. Their claim is clear: because science has shown that racial essentialism is false and because the idea of race has proved virulent, we should do away with the concept entirely. Michael O. Hardimon criticizes this line of thinking, arguing that we must recognize the real ways in which race exists in order to revise our understanding of its significance. Rethinking Race provides a novel answer to the question “What is race?” Pernicious, traditional racialism maintains that people can be judged and ranked according to innate racial features. Hardimon points out that those who would eliminate race make the mistake of associating the word only with this view. He agrees that this concept should be jettisoned, but draws a distinction with three alternative ideas: first, a stripped-down version of the ordinary concept of race that recognizes minimal physical differences between races but does not consider them significant; second, a scientific understanding of populations with shared lines of descent; and third, an acknowledgment of “socialrace” as a separate construction. Hardimon provides a language for understanding the ways in which races do and do not exist. His account is realistic in recognizing the physical features of races, as well as the existence of races in our social world. But it is deflationary in rejecting the concept of hierarchical or defining racial characteristics. Ultimately, Rethinking Race offers a philosophical basis for repudiating racism without blinding ourselves to reality.