Why the Law Is So Perverse
By Leo Katz
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
Conundrums, puzzles, and perversities: these are Leo Katz’s stock-in-trade, and in Why the Law Is So Perverse, he focuses on four fundamental features of our legal system, all of which seem to not make sense on some level and to demand explanation. First, legal decisions are essentially made in an either/or fashion—guilty or not guilty, liable or not liable, either it’s a contract or it’s not—but reality is rarely as clear-cut. Why aren’t there any in-between verdicts? Second, the law is full of loopholes. No one seems to like them, but somehow they cannot be made to disappear. Why? Third, legal systems are loath to punish certain kinds of highly immoral conduct while prosecuting other far less pernicious behaviors. What makes a villainy a felony? Finally, why does the law often prohibit what are sometimes called win-win transactions, such as organ sales or surrogacy contracts?
Katz asserts that these perversions arise out of a cluster of logical difficulties related to multicriterial decision making. The discovery of these difficulties dates back to Condorcet’s eighteenth-century exploration of voting rules, which marked the beginning of what we know today as social choice theory. Condorcet’s voting cycles, Arrow’s Theorem, Sen’s Libertarian Paradox—every seeming perversity of the law turns out to be the counterpart of one of the many voting paradoxes that lie at the heart of social choice. Katz’s lucid explanations and apt examples show why they resist any easy resolutions.
The New York Times Book Review called Katz’s first book “a fascinating romp through the philosophical side of the law.” Why the Law Is So Perverse is sure to provide its readers a similar experience.
Read more from Leo Katz
Bad Acts and Guilty Minds: Conundrums of the Criminal Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Punitive Imagination: Law, Justice, and Responsibility Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Why the Law Is So Perverse
Related ebooks
Profiles, Probabilities, and Stereotypes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Language of Statutes: Laws and Their Interpretation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Making Rights Real: Activists, Bureaucrats, and the Creation of the Legalistic State Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAddressing Rape Reform in Law and Practice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLaw and Public Choice: A Critical Introduction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Without Fear or Favor: Judicial Independence and Judicial Accountability in the States Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Constitution of Many Minds: Why the Founding Document Doesn't Mean What It Meant Before Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Judicial Reputation: A Comparative Theory Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Nature of the Judicial Process Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Soul of the First Amendment Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Legal Analyst: A Toolkit for Thinking about the Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bodies of Law Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhy the Innocent Plead Guilty and the Guilty Go Free: And Other Paradoxes of Our Broken Legal System Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Courts: A Comparative and Political Analysis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Judicial Review and the National Political Process: A Functional Reconsideration of the Role of the Supreme Court Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCase of a Lifetime: A Criminal Defense Lawyer's Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Handbook of Comparative Criminal Law Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Distorting the Law: Politics, Media, and the Litigation Crisis Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pulled Over: How Police Stops Define Race and Citizenship Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHarvard Law Review: Volume 130, Number 1 - November 2016 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBigLaw: Money and Meaning in the Modern Law Firm Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams: Summary by Fireside Reads Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Do Things with Legal Doctrine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCriminal Capital: How the Finance Industry Facilitates Crime Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRestoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty - Updated Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cult Of The Court Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCourt Reform on Trial: Why Simple Solutions Fail Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Tyranny of Public Discourse: Abraham Lincoln's Six-Element Antidote for Meaningful and Persuasive Writing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPerspective Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpeaking of Crime: The Language of Criminal Justice Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Law For You
The Pro Se Litigant's Civil Litigation Handbook: How to Represent Yourself in a Civil Lawsuit Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Criminal Law Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLaw For Dummies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Win In Court Every Time Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The ZERO Percent: Secrets of the United States, the Power of Trust, Nationality, Banking and ZERO TAXES! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Legal Words You Should Know: Over 1,000 Essential Terms to Understand Contracts, Wills, and the Legal System Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Know Your Rights: A Survival Guide for Non-Lawyers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLegal Writing in Plain English: A Text with Exercises Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Estate & Trust Administration For Dummies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLegal Writing: QuickStudy Laminated Reference Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Paralegal's Handbook: A Complete Reference for All Your Daily Tasks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Think Like a Lawyer--and Why: A Common-Sense Guide to Everyday Dilemmas Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Wills and Trusts Kit For Dummies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Verbal Judo, Second Edition: The Gentle Art of Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Everything Guide To Being A Paralegal: Winning Secrets to a Successful Career! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Drafting Affidavits and Statements Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Win Your Case: How to Present, Persuade, and Prevail--Every Place, Every Time Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/58 Living Trust Forms: Legal Self-Help Guide Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks For Dummies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Family Trusts: A Guide for Beneficiaries, Trustees, Trust Protectors, and Trust Creators Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jews Don’t Count Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Legal Demand Letters: A+ Guides to Writing, #10 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Science Fiction Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Socratic Method: A Practitioner's Handbook Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Why the Law Is So Perverse
7 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why the Law is So PerverseLeo KatzThursday, April 26, 2012 8:12 PMWhy do I read books like this? I thought the title was interesting. Leo Katz, a law professor, explains some paradoxes in law with the theory of social choice, an idea developed from analysis of voting systems. He thinks law is a multicriterial decision system, and claims that once more than two choices are involved, it is impossible to have a system that is consistent, respects the will of the majority, does not respond to irrelevant alternatives, and is not hypersensitive to small changes in voting preferences. He explores the problem with loopholes; why they exist and why they cannot be made to go away. Why is the law either-or; there are no in between decisions? And why is much conduct that is objectionable is not criminal under the law - ingratitude, for instance? Why cannot a prisoner volunteer for torture to shorten a prison sentence (a win for society because less money is spent on prison and for the prisoner because his sentance is over sooner)? The arguments are sometimes convoluted, and it is not certain that the multicriterial decision making is always responsible, but the book illuminated a good deal of the nature of the law. “Volenti non fit inuria - consent cures the wrong”“The fact that your friend has a claim to something you could give him, on the one hand, and a strong desire for something else you could give him, on the other, does not give him a strong claim to that other thing as well.”“A cotton broker approached him, (MacArthur’s father) desparately hoping to secure the temporary but illegal use of Army transport facilities. The bribe was to be a large sum of cash, which was left in MacArthur’s desk, and a night with an exquisite southern girl. Wiring Washington the details, MacArthur concluded: ‘I am depositing the money with the United States Treasury and request immediate relief from this command. They are getting close to my price.”“Social choice theorists like to distinguish between two types of voting manipulation. The first they call agenda manipulation, and its archetypical example is the killer amendment. The second they call strategic, or counterpreferential voting.”“…by the sociologist Eviatar Zerubavel, in his aptly titled book The Fine Line. At the root of either/or, he argues, is our irrational dread of everything that lives on a boundary…”“…the paradoxical claim made by the infamous Sorites argument that all concepts have a sharp boundary - that one hair makes the difference between being bald and not bald…”