Liberty Limiting Principles
The state might be justified in limiting the liberty to perform actions that:
- May cause harm to others: The Harm Principle;
- May cause offense to others: The Offense Principle;
- May cause harm to the individual performing the action: The Principle of Legal Paternalism; and/or
- Are immoral: The Principle of Legal Moralism.
- The Harm Principle
What is "harm"? _______________________________
What justifies this principle?
Mill's justification: ____________
The only laws restricting citizens' freedoms that maximize utility are those preventing harms to others.
Another such justification?
To whom does the principle apply? _______________________
- The Offense Principle
Feinberg: the state may legitimately interfere with X's liberty to prevent wrongful offense to others.
What is "offense"? The suffering of a universally disliked mental state, including annoyance, disgust, embarrassment, anxiety, or shocks to moral/aesthetic sensibilities.
Wrongful offense = conduct causing offense produced intentionally by someone without (plausible) justification/excuse.
- The Principle of Legal Paternalism
Mill: Paternalistic laws are illegitimate.
- The Principle of Legal Moralism
If an act is immoral, then that constitutes a good reason for why it should be illegal.
The basic problem:
Two Questions: (a) does the conduct at issue constitute a harm? and (b) does the harm in question justify state legislation?