Justification under Authority
49 Pages Posted: 20 Feb 2009
Date Written: February 18, 2009
Abstract
In this paper I discuss and reply to Malcolm Thorburn's important article 'Justifications, Powers, and Authority', Yale Law Journal 117 (2008), 1070. My discussion raises a wide range of conceptual and doctrinal questions about Thorburn's account of justification defences, and about the theory of justfication defences more generally. The paper also trespasses on some broader questions about the nature of law and its relationship to morality.
Keywords: criminal law, defences, nature of law, legal positivism, consent, self-defence, arrest, rule of law
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Gardner, John, Justification under Authority (February 18, 2009). Oxford Legal Studies Research Paper No. 5/2009, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1345763 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1345763
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