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
27.
In the final sentence of ███ ████████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ██████████ █
a
involves two layers ██ ████ ███ █████████ ███ ███████ ██████ ███ ███ █████ █████████ ███ ██████ ██████
Only the first example involves a public rule, and only the second example involves a private-organization rule. We need an answer that applies equally to both examples.
b
requires that those ████████ ██ ███ ████ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ██████ ███ ██████████
The author doesn’t suggest that in actual practice, everyone affected by a rule needs to understand the motivation behind that rule. Rather, we just need to be able to assume hypothetically that if people understood a rule’s motivation and that it was in their best interests, they would agree with it.
c
involves a case ██ █████ █ ████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██ ██ ██████████
This is true of both examples.
d
can convince athletes ████ █████ ██████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ███████████ ███████
The first example doesn’t involve athletes.
e
illustrates how appeals ██ ███ ████ ███ ████████████ ███ ██ ████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████████
The examples only deal with rules that do involve coordination.