The Moral Limits of Law Obedience, Respect, and Legitimacy

by Higgins, Ruth C. A.

• ISBN13: 9780199265671
• ISBN10: 0199265674
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-07-08
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The Moral Limits of Law analyses the related debates concerning the moral obligation to obey the law, conscientious citizenship, and state legitimacy. Modern societies are drawn in a tension between the centripetal pull of the local and the centrifugal stress of the global. Boundaries thatonce appeared permanent are now permeable: transnational legal, economic, and trade institutions increasingly erode the autonomy of states. Nonetheless transnational principles are still typically effected through state law. For law's subjects, this tension brings into focus the interaction of legaland moral obligations and the legitimacy of state authority. This volume incorporates a comprehensive critical analysis of the methodology and substance of the debates in recent legal, political, and moral philosophy, regarding political obligation and the moral obligation to obey the law. The author argues that traditional accounts of political obligationthat assume a bounded conception of the polity are no longer tenable. Higgins therefore presents an original theory of the conscientious agent's attitude towards law that accommodates the contemporary social tension between local and global obligations.

Author Biography

Ruth C. A. Higgins graduated with first class honours in law from Glasgow University in 1995, as joint winner of the Dr John MacCormick Prize for the Most Distinguished Graduate in Law and winner of the Bennet Miller Prize for Private Law. Between 1996 and 2000, she undertook her DPhil at Balliol College, Oxford, on a Snell Scholarship. During this time she held a lectureship in law at Corpus Christi College and spent time as a visiting scholar at Columbia University, New York. She currently works in the Competition & Regulation department of the Sydney law firm Gilbert & Tobin.

Table of Contents

The Problem of Conscientious Obedience	1	(47)
Respect for Persons and Law	48	(47)
Consent, Residence, and the Democratic Voice	95	(46)
Community, Identity, and Joint Commitment	141	(39)
The Burdens of Benefit	180	(35)
Benevolence and Gratitude	215	(29)
The Implications of Respect	244	(5)
Bibliography	249	(24)
Index	273