Academic

Crowe on Dworkin on Integrity

By Lawrence Solum

Jonathan Crowe (The University of Queensland - T.C. Beirne School of Law) has posted Dworkin on the Value of Integrity (Deakin Law Review, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp.167-180, 2007) on SSRN.  Here is the abstract:

This article explores and critiques Ronald Dworkin's arguments on the value of integrity in law. Dworkin presents integrity in both legislation and adjudication as holding inherent political value. I defend an alternative theory of the value of integrity, according to which integrity holds instrumental value as part of a legal framework that seeks to realise a particular set of basic values taken to underpin the legal system as a whole. It is argued that this instrumental-value theory explains the value of integrity more satisfactorily than Dworkin's inherent-value account. The article concludes with a discussion of Dworkin's 'one right answer thesis'. Although the proposed theory of integrity does not support a strong version of Dworkin's thesis, it does suggest that there will be a single correct answer to legal questions more often than for normative deliberation generally.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on November 13, 2008 (boomark / email).