Self-study
P1
Many legal theorists have argued that the only morally legitimate goal in imposing criminal penalties against certain behaviors is to prevent people from harming others. ████████ ████ █████████ █████ ██████ ████ ████ █████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ █████ ███ ████ ██ ██ ███████ ████ ███████ ████████ ████ ██████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ██ ████ ██████ █████ ███
Legal theorists' perspective ·
The only morally legitimate goal in criminal penalties is to prevent harm
Under this theory, we shouldn't have laws that force people to act only in order to conform to some social norm.
Main point ·
Harm prevention goal justifies punishing some non-conforming behavior that it initially might not seem to justify
P2
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Example 1 ·
Lack of coordination can be harmful, so harm-prevention goal can justify coordination
Example: Conventions about which side of the road to drive on. Having a rule that everyone follows is better than no rule, because coordination will prevent harm.
P3
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Example 2 ·
Harm-prevention goal can also justify coordination in cases where harm goes beyond lack of coordination
Example: Rule against athletes using steroids. If this rule didn't exist, some athletes would use steroids and get an advantage. This forces other athletes to use steroids or lose competitions. So some people's freedom to use steroids ends up harming other athletes. Rule against steroids is in everyone's interest.
Passage Style
Single position
25.
The author distinguishes between two ████████ ██ ████████████ █████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ████ █████
a
prevent some harm ██████ ████ █████ ████████ ██████ ██ █ ████ ██ ████████████
The traffic rule prevents the kind of harm that would be caused simply by a lack of coordination. The steroids rule, meanwhile, prevents an additional form of harm: the harm to one’s own health caused by using a certain substance.
b
are intended to ██████ ██████████ ██ █ ███ ██ ███████████ █████████
Both rules have this intention.
c
are voluntarily agreed ████ ██ ███ █████ ████████ ██ ████ █████
The author assumes this would be true of both rules.
d
could be considered ███████████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████
The author believes both rules should be considered justifiable by the legal theorists’ own principle of preventing harm.
e
apply less directly ██ ███ ███████ ██ ██████████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ███████ ████████ ███ ███████
Both rules do this.