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Against Obligation : The Multiple Sources of Authority in a Liberal Democracy / Abner S. Greene.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2012]Copyright date: ©2012Description: 1 online resource (352 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780674064416
  • 9780674065178
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 340 .112 23
LOC classification:
  • K240 .G74 2012eb
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- INTRODUCTION -- 1. AGAINST POLITICAL OBLIGATION -- 2. ACCOMMODATING OUR PLURAL OBLIGATIONS -- 3. AGAINST INTERPRETIVE OBLIGATION TO THE PAST -- 4. AGAINST INTERPRETIVE OBLIGATION TO THE SUPREME COURT -- CONCLUSION -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- INDEX
Summary: Do citizens of a nation such as the United States have a moral duty to obey the law? Do officials, when interpreting the Constitution, have an obligation to follow what that text meant when ratified? To follow precedent? To follow what the Supreme Court today says the Constitution means?These are questions of political obligation (for citizens) and interpretive obligation (for anyone interpreting the Constitution, often officials). Abner Greene argues that such obligations do not exist. Although citizens should obey some laws entirely, and other laws in some instances, no one has put forth a successful argument that citizens should obey all laws all the time. Greene's case is not only "against" obligation. It is also "for" an approach he calls "permeable sovereignty": all of our norms are on equal footing with the state's laws. Accordingly, the state should accommodate religious, philosophical, family, or tribal norms whenever possible.Greene shows that questions of interpretive obligation share many qualities with those of political obligation. In rejecting the view that constitutional interpreters must follow either prior or higher sources of constitutional meaning, Greene confronts and turns aside arguments similar to those offered for a moral duty of citizens to obey the law.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780674065178

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- INTRODUCTION -- 1. AGAINST POLITICAL OBLIGATION -- 2. ACCOMMODATING OUR PLURAL OBLIGATIONS -- 3. AGAINST INTERPRETIVE OBLIGATION TO THE PAST -- 4. AGAINST INTERPRETIVE OBLIGATION TO THE SUPREME COURT -- CONCLUSION -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- INDEX

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

Do citizens of a nation such as the United States have a moral duty to obey the law? Do officials, when interpreting the Constitution, have an obligation to follow what that text meant when ratified? To follow precedent? To follow what the Supreme Court today says the Constitution means?These are questions of political obligation (for citizens) and interpretive obligation (for anyone interpreting the Constitution, often officials). Abner Greene argues that such obligations do not exist. Although citizens should obey some laws entirely, and other laws in some instances, no one has put forth a successful argument that citizens should obey all laws all the time. Greene's case is not only "against" obligation. It is also "for" an approach he calls "permeable sovereignty": all of our norms are on equal footing with the state's laws. Accordingly, the state should accommodate religious, philosophical, family, or tribal norms whenever possible.Greene shows that questions of interpretive obligation share many qualities with those of political obligation. In rejecting the view that constitutional interpreters must follow either prior or higher sources of constitutional meaning, Greene confronts and turns aside arguments similar to those offered for a moral duty of citizens to obey the law.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)