In the Wall Street Journal, Thane Rosenbaum opines on the civilian status of the killed Gazans: The asymmetry is complicated even further by the status of these civilians. Under such maddening circumstances, are the adults, in a legal and moral sense, actual civilians? To qualify as a civilian one has to do more than simply… Continue reading Osama bin Laden in the Wall Street Journal
But what belongs to who?
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, the poor man’s James Poulous, has an artistic piece against legal realism. For those unaware, legal realism is a descriptive account of economic institutions that recognizes that every single one of them are made up by legal and political bodies, including property law, contract law, patent law, copyright law, commercial law, corporate law,… Continue reading But what belongs to who?
Damon Linker’s Just War Gloss
I wrote one post about Just War Theory about a year ago. In it, I rehash a paper I wrote about the topic many years ago, in which I argued that the normative justification for the feudal-era principle of non-combatant immunity no longer applies to countries with liberal democratic governments. I still think that’s true,… Continue reading Damon Linker’s Just War Gloss
A slippery slope towards justice
Bryce Covert has a piece about a poor person finally being allowed to testify at Paul Ryan’s very serious and earnest inquiries into the War on Poverty. Apparently, Republican Todd Rokita (who?) thought he’d be a real dick to the person, and the result was pure genius: He gave a “theoretical example” in which the… Continue reading A slippery slope towards justice
Government on net incentivizes work and employment
From Ozimek: Finally, incentivizing work is consistent with neo-classical, non-paternalistic framework when you remember that the government on net disincentivizes work and employment. Due to the progressive tax and transfer system, and the variety of implicit marginal tax rates people face, the status quo is that many people are probably working an inefficiently low amount.… Continue reading Government on net incentivizes work and employment