Law in Contemporary Society

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FugitiveSlaveAct 4 - 22 Jan 2013 - Main.IanSullivan
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 I was reading Prigg v. Pennsylvania, the case in our Con Law class about the Fugitive Slave Act, and I couldn't help but think of this class. It seems to be almost a caricature of a legal outcome based on legal principles which prides itself on its logic but in no way approaches a moral conclusion. Here's Justice Story combining abstract legal axioms with those that he claims underlie the Constitution to reach a "logical" conclusion within the boundaries of our legal system. And what do we arrive at when we build off of these principles that are so important to our society? That people can be captured as "property" and enslaved?

It's a mockery of the claim that the principles our legal system operates on lead us to ethical outcomes.


Revision 4r4 - 22 Jan 2013 - 18:13:45 - IanSullivan
Revision 3r3 - 05 Feb 2012 - 21:45:27 - MeaganBurrows
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