Introduction to 'Free Will and the Law: New Perspectives'

Abstract

In this Introduction to the forthcoming volume Free Will and the Law: New Perspectives, we give an overview of the use and development of theories of free will within various debates in the philosophy of law over the last half century. We provide summaries of the contribution to the volume, all of which engage with the libertarian theory of free will developed by philosopher and appellate judge, David Hodgson (1939-2012). Hodgson, whom HLA Hart once called “the ablest DPhil candidate I ever had,” developed a distinctive conception of incompatibilist, libertarian free will with a view to addressing perennial issues in legal philosophy, especially within the theory of punishment. In this volume, many leading philosophers of law and theorists of free will critically examine Hodgson’s libertarianism, both in its own right as well in connection to longstanding problems in legal philosophy.

Keywords: Free Will, Legal Theory, David Hodgson, punishment, adjudication, determinism, retributivism, libertarianism

JEL Classification: K00, K10, K14, K30, K40, K42