Legal Discontinuities — Opening Remarks

Abstract

The law inevitably draws lines, but why do the lines have such dramatic effects? Being a bit too incautious can turn what would have been lawful conduct into a million dollar claim for negligence. Being a bit unreasonable in assessing danger can turn what would have been justified self-defense into murder with a life sentence. Many have the intuition that as we gradually cross some boundary from permissible conduct into tortious or criminal conduct, the legal consequences should also change gradually. Yet laws often have all-or-nothing effects even when they could be gradual.

To better understand these and related phenomena, we convened an international group of scholars with diverse interests in the law, spanning property, tax, torts, crimes, contracts, and more, for the Legal Discontinuities Conference. The event was held at Tel Aviv University Law School’s Cegla Center for Interdisciplinary Research of the Law from December 29-30, 2019. Contributing papers will be published in a special open access issue of Theoretical Inquiries in Law. This short paper is adapted from my opening conference remarks.

Keywords: Legal Discontinuities, Binary, Scalar, Slices, Lumps, Smooth, Bumpy, All-or-Nothing, Inputs, Outputs, Rules, Standards