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Philosophy of Law

Alexander Guerrero

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Assistant Professor of Philosophy and of Medical Ethics and Health Policy
Ph.D. New York University
J.D. New York University
Contact Information
Web Site: 
Personal Web Page
Email address: 
Research Interests: 

•Political Philosophy

•Ethics, Applied Ethics, Bioethics, Metaethics

•Philosophy of Law

•Epistemology 

My research focuses on a number of different topics in political philosophy, moral philosophy, philosophy of law, and topics in epistemology that relate to those three areas. 

In political philosophy, my work has centered on the issue of political legitimacy: what, if anything, makes political action morally permissible, given that political action constitutes action backed by coercive force?  I am particularly interested in the connections between democracy and legitimacy, and in exploring alternative political systems that might be improvements upon familiar representative systems of government.  A second set of interests concerns issues at the intersection of epistemology and political philosophy: how should we design political institutions so that they are both legitimate and epistemically responsible?

I work on a number of different topics in moral and legal philosophy, many of which have intersections with topics in epistemology.  I have research interests in all of the following topics: the moral status of animals and non-sentient life, the factors that make actions have moral worth, the relationship between moral responsibility and individual history, the philosophy of punishment and the role of the prison, ethical and legal issues relating to the treatment and punishment of the mentally ill, and the purpose and interpretation of constitutions.  Additionally, I have a number of interests with respect to what one might call “moral epistemic” responsibilities—moral obligations to investigate, scrutinize testimony, suspend judgment, or refrain from acting as if one knows something—and the ethics and epistemology of decision-making under conditions of factual, legal, and/or moral uncertainty.

Selected Publications: 
  • “Lawyers, Context, and Legitimacy: A New Theory of Legal Ethics,” Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, Vol. 25 (2012), pp. 107-164
  • “The Paradox of Voting and the Ethics of Political Representation,” Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 38 (2010), pp. 272-306
  • “Don’t Know, Don’t Kill: Moral Ignorance, Culpability, and Caution,” Philosophical Studies, Vol. 136 (2007), pp. 59-97
Curriculum Vitæ: 
application/pdf iconGuerrero_Web_CV.pdf

Stephen R. Perry

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John J. O. Brien Professor of Law and Philosophy
D.Phil Oxford, LL.B Toronto
Contact Information
Phone: 
(215) 898.7498
Email address: 
Appointments: 

John J. O'Brien Professor of Law & Professor of Philosophy Director, Institute for Law and Philosophy

Research Interests: 
  • Legal Philosophy
  • Torts
  • Political Philosophy

    • Stephen Perry's research interests include the methodology of jurisprudence, the general nature of authority and obligation in law, the role of corrective justice in tort law, the morality of risk imposition, and the relationship between legal and moral responsibility.

    Selected Publications: 

    Risk, Harm, Interests, and Rights, in RISK: PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES 190 (Tim Lewens ed., Routledge 2007).

    Hart on Social Rules and the Foundations of Law: Liberating the Internal Point of View, 75 FORDHAM L. REV. 1171 (2006).

    Associative Obligations and the Obligation to Obey the Law, in EXPLORING LAW’S EMPIRE: THE JURISPRUDENCE OF RONALD DWORKIN 183 (Scott Hershovitz ed., Oxford Univ. Press 2006). Law and Obligation, 50 AMER. J. JURISP. 263 (2005).

    Harm, History, and Counterfactuals, 40 SAN DIEGO L. REV. 1283 (2003). Method and Principle in Legal Theory, 111 YALE L.J. 1757 (2002).

    Claire Finkelstein

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    Professor of Law and Philosophy
    J.D. Yale, Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh
    Contact Information
    Phone: 
    (215) 898-5798
    Email address: 
    Research Interests: 
  • Criminal Law
  • Legal Philosophy
  • Moral and Political Philosophy
    • Selected Publications: 

    HOBBES’ LEGAL THEORY (work-in-progress).

    Acting on an Intention, in REASON, INTENTION AND MORALITY (Gijs Van Donselaar & Bruno Verbeek eds., Ashgate Publishing, forthcoming 2007).

    A Contractarian Argument Against the Death Penalty, 81 N.Y.U. L. REV. 1283 (2006).

    Hobbes and the Internal Point of View, 75 FORDHAM L. REV. 1211 (2006).

    Report for British Law Commission on American Murder Law, Completed September, 2005 (available upon request), published in British Law Commission CP177 (December 20, 2005).

    Merger and Felony Murder, in DEFINING CRIMES: ESSAYS ON THE CRIMINAL LAW’S “SPECIAL PORT” (Antony Duff & Stuart Green eds., Oxford Univ. Press 2005).

    William Ewald

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    Professor of Law and Philosophy
    J.D. Harvard, D. Phil Oxford
    Contact Information
    Phone: 
    (215) 898-9135
    Email address: 
    Research Interests: 
  • Philosophy of Mathematics 
  • Comparative Law
  • International Law
  • Legal History
  • Philosophy of Law
    • Selected Publications: 

    James Wilson at the Constitutional Convention, U. PA. J. CONST. L. (forthcoming 2007-8).

    THE STYLE OF AMERICAN LAW (forthcoming).

    FROM KANT TO HILBERT: A SOURCE BOOK IN THE FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICS (2 vol., Oxford University Press 1996).

    Comparative Jurisprudence: What Was it Like to Try a Rat?, 1995 U. PA. L. REV. 1889.

    Unger' s Philosophy: A Critical Legal Study, 1988 YALE L.J. 665.

    Samuel Freeman

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    Avalon Professor in the Humanities
    Ph.D. Harvard University
    J.D. University of North Carolina
    Contact Information
    Web Site: 
    Prof. Freeman's Web Site
    Email address: 
    Office Location: 
    492 Logan Hall
    Appointments: 

    Avalon Professor in the Humanities

    Professor of Philosophy and Law

    Research Interests: 
    • Social and Political Philosophy
    • Moral Philosophy
    • Philosophy of Law

    Samuel Freeman works in social and political philosophy, ethics, and philosophy of law. He has written books on Justice and the Social Contract, and on the political philosophy of John Rawls. He edited the Cambridge Companion to Rawls (2002), as well as John Rawls's Lectures on the History of Political Philosophy (2007) and his Collected Papers (1999). He is currently working on a manuscript on liberalism and distributive justice.

    Selected Publications: 

    Rawls, (The Philosophers Series, Routledge, 2007)

    Justice and the Social Contract, (Oxford University Press, 2006)

    ‘Capitalism in the Classical and High Liberal Traditions,’ Social Philosophy and Policy,
    28 (no. 2 Summer 2011): 19-55; reprinted in Capitalism and Liberalism, ed. Ellen
    Paul (Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011)

    ‘Constructivism, Facts, and Moral Justification,’ Contemporary Debates in Political
    Philosophy, Thomas Christiano, ed. (Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 2009)

    'The Burdens of Public Justification,' Politics, Philosophy, and Economics, 6 (No.1, 2007): 5-43

    "Illiberal Libertarians: Why Libertarianism is not a Liberal View" Philosophy and Public Affairs, 30, 2 (Spring 2002), 105-151.

    “John Rawls: An Overview,” in The Cambridge Companion to Rawls, Samuel Freeman, ed., 1-61.(Cambridge University Press, 2003)

    “Deliberative Democracy: A Sympathetic Comment,” Philosophy and Public Affairs, 29, 4 (Fall 2000 issue), 371-418

    “Utilitarianism, Deontology, and the Priority of Right,” Philosophy and Public Affairs, 23, 4 (Fall 1994), pp.313-349.

    “Original Meaning, Democratic Interpretation, and the Constitution,” Philosophy and Public Affairs, 21, 1 (Winter 1992), pp.3-42.

    "Property as an Institutional Convention in Hume's Account of Justice," Archiv für
    Geschichte der Philosophie, vol.73, no.1, 1991, pp.20-49.

    “Reason and Agreement in Social Contract Views,” Philosophy and Public Affairs, 19, 2 (Spring 1990), pp.122-157.

    "Constitutional Democracy and the Legitimacy of Judicial Review,"
    Law and Philosophy, vol.9, no.4, November 1990, pp.327-370.

    Curriculum Vitæ: 
    application/msword iconCV_Samuel_Freeman_Oct 2012.doc

    Anita L. Allen

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    Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law and Philosophy
    J.D. Harvard, Ph.D. Michigan
    Contact Information
    Phone: 
    (215) 898-9035
    Email address: 
    Appointments: 

    Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy

    Research Interests: 
    • Privacy Law, Theory and Values
    • Legal Theory
    • Contemporary Ethics and Bioethics
    • Mental Illness
    • Accountability
    • Race Relations
    • Gender and the Law
    Selected Publications: 

    The New Ethics: A Tour of the 21st Century, Miramax Books 2004.

    Why Privacy Isn't Everything: Feminist Reflections on Personal Accountability, Rowman and LIttlefield, 2003.

    Uneasy Access: Privacy for Women in a Free Society, Rowman and Littlefield, 1998.

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