Schauer on Coercion,Acceptance, and Schizophrenia |
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Authors: | José Juan Moreso |
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Affiliation: | 1. Faculty of Law, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, SpainI am thankful to the organizers of the Bocconi Seminar, Damiano Canale and Giovanni Tuzet;2. to the other participants (David Dyzenhaus, Leslie Green, Eric Millard, Ralf Poscher, Torben Spaak);3. and mainly to Fred Schauer for comments, suggestions, and fruitful discussions in Milan. |
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Abstract: | This article provides a comment on The Force of Law (Schauer 2015), which is Schauer's new and illuminating contribution to the place of law in our societies and in our lives. It constitutes a strong defence of the importance of coercion in law. First, I consider cases where the law is not able to motivate human behaviour adequately, in order to show that legal coercion is not always justified. Second, I examine the Rawlsian distinction between the ideal and the nonideal theory and its application to the theory of law. Third, I tentatively argue that coercion has no place in ideal theory, but a core place in nonideal theory. In this way, it may be plausible to reconstruct the motivation to accept the law, at least when the law is normatively justified. |
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