Overview

We subject others and are ourselves subjected to risk all the time - risk permeates life. Despite the ubiquity of risk and its imposition, philosophers and legal scholars have devoted little of their attention to the difficult questions stimulated by the pervasiveness of risk. When we impose risk upon others, what is it that we are doing? What is risking's moral significance? What moral standards govern the imposition of risk? And how should the law respond to it? This book highlights these important but neglected questions and offers novel answers to them in a systematic way, constructing a normative framework of risk imposition that draws upon a wide range of insights from diverse sources within philosophy and legal theory. Oxford Legal Philosophy publishes the best new work in philosophically-oriented legal theory. It commissions and solicits monographs in all branches of the subject, including works on philosophical issues in all areas of public and private law, and in the national, transnational, and international realms; studies of the nature of law, legal institutions, and legal reasoning; treatments of problems in political morality as they bear on law; and explorations in the nature and development of legal philosophy itself. The series represents diverse traditions of thought but always with an emphasis on rigour and originality. It sets the standard in contemporary jurisprudence.

Full Product Details

9780191813351

Table of Contents

Reviews

""Imposing Risk is a major contribution to the discussion of risk imposition in moral, political, and legal philosophy, one that is certain to become a touchstone for future work in this area. Synthesizing insights from moral and legal philosophy, as well as philosophical work on the nature of probability, it both advances a novel, genuinely ecumenical approach to the question of how the risk associated with an activity ought to be characterized for purposes of moral deliberation, and builds a compelling case for the virtues of a non-consequentialist, contractualist approach to reasoning about permissible risk imposition."" -Rahul Kumar, Professor of Philosophy, Queen's University, Canada ""Imposing Risk is a real contribution to normative ethics and legal theory. With arguments that are both novel and powerful, Oberdiek addresses the many theoretical and moral issues, including neglected but central ones, bearing on the morality of exposing others to mortal risk. Whether in diffusing the seeming indeterminacy of risk, explaining why imposing risk matters morally, defending a right against being subject to risk, or in articulating a contractualist account of permissible risking, Imposing Risk is full of clarifying insight and is sure to become a standard reference for future work on the normative dimensions of risk."" - Stephen Perry, University of Pennsylvania ""John Oberdiek tackles one of the hardest problems in moral and legal philosophy-the question of when it is wrong to impose risks on others and why. With characteristic clarity, insight, and depth he defends the right that people have against having risks imposed on them in the light of more fundamental values, especially the value of autonomy. He offers his account in the context of a more comprehensive non-consequentialist moral and legal theory. Imposing Risk is a terrific achievement."" - Victor Tadros, Professor of Criminal Law and Legal Theory, University of Warwick

Imposing Risk is a major contribution to the discussion of risk imposition in moral, political, and legal philosophy, one that is certain to become a touchstone for future work in this area. Synthesizing insights from moral and legal philosophy, as well as philosophical work on the nature of probability, it both advances a novel, genuinely ecumenical approach to the question of how the risk associated with an activity ought to be characterized for purposes of moral deliberation, and builds a compelling case for the virtues of a non-consequentialist, contractualist approach to reasoning about permissible risk imposition. -Rahul Kumar, Professor of Philosophy, Queen's University, Canada Imposing Risk is a real contribution to normative ethics and legal theory. With arguments that are both novel and powerful, Oberdiek addresses the many theoretical and moral issues, including neglected but central ones, bearing on the morality of exposing others to mortal risk. Whether in diffusing the seeming indeterminacy of risk, explaining why imposing risk matters morally, defending a right against being subject to risk, or in articulating a contractualist account of permissible risking, Imposing Risk is full of clarifying insight and is sure to become a standard reference for future work on the normative dimensions of risk. - Stephen Perry, University of Pennsylvania John Oberdiek tackles one of the hardest problems in moral and legal philosophy-the question of when it is wrong to impose risks on others and why. With characteristic clarity, insight, and depth he defends the right that people have against having risks imposed on them in the light of more fundamental values, especially the value of autonomy. He offers his account in the context of a more comprehensive non-consequentialist moral and legal theory. Imposing Risk is a terrific achievement. - Victor Tadros, Professor of Criminal Law and Legal Theory, University of Warwick

Author Information

John Oberdiek is Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School. He is also Associate Graduate Faculty in the Rutgers-New Brunswick Department of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Rutgers Institute for Law and Philosophy. Educated in philosophy and law at Middlebury, Oxford, New York University, and the University of Pennsylvania, Oberdiek has been a Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Fellow in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available