Word: dworkin
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Legal Scholar Ronald Dworkin [Sept. 5] believes "laws should not be founded on personal moral judgments." He also believes judges should go beyond the explicitly written law and "range widely, asking fundamental questions and applying ethical principles as well as written legal rules to the case." These two statements, taken together, indicate that he believes the people, via legislative bodies, should not decide what is morally right and wrong for society, but that this power should be left to the judges. Thus, to a limited extent, he advocates an increase in government by men as opposed to government...
...Professor Dworkin says, "a qualified white has no inherent right to be admitted to medical school ahead of a less-qualified minority member," then we abrogate the public's right to the highest quality medical care. Further, if "the right to be treated as an equal does not mean the right to equal treatment," then what exactly does it mean...
...Dworkin's theories have created shock waves among jurisprudential scholars, and much of the response is sharply critical. Says Duke University Law Professor George Christie: "Dworkin misconceives what legal decision making is all about. He views it as the search for right answers rather than a process for producing adequate justifications for legal decisions. Actual cases are simply too complicated to abstract into clear rights and clear duties...
...measure of the extent to which Dworkin has succeeded in stimulating his colleagues-whether positively or negatively-is the experience of the Georgia Law Review. The editors solicited articles for a special issue on jurisprudence-and found that virtually every contribution addressed the challenging thoughts of the Yank at Oxford...
Drawings by Elizabeth Dworkin, Lee Newton, Robert Cronin and Andrew Tavarelli are on exhibit through Nov. 19 at MIT's HAYDEN CORRIDOR GALLERY. This gallery is always open...