Mill's theories of the aesthetic virtues require a great deal of exegesis and are, in any case, b... more Mill's theories of the aesthetic virtues require a great deal of exegesis and are, in any case, beyond the scope of this paper. For my purposes, I will merely point out that it is widely acknowledged that Mill emphasized the importance of living a life of aesthetic as well as moral value much more than most other Utilitarians, especially his contemporaries. 42 England is not a large country, especially with respect to land area.
Mill's theories of the aesthetic virtues require a great deal of exegesis and are, in any case, b... more Mill's theories of the aesthetic virtues require a great deal of exegesis and are, in any case, beyond the scope of this paper. For my purposes, I will merely point out that it is widely acknowledged that Mill emphasized the importance of living a life of aesthetic as well as moral value much more than most other Utilitarians, especially his contemporaries. 42 England is not a large country, especially with respect to land area.
In this article, I critically examine the claim that work law is best conceived as a subspecies o... more In this article, I critically examine the claim that work law is best conceived as a subspecies of contract law, arguing that this characterization is neither descriptively accurate nor normatively instructive. Rather than understanding work law as a set of restraints on freedom of contract, we should see it as creating and defining special relationships, much like the codified definitions of marriages and business partnerships. I trace the development of work relationships through the common law of " master and servant " and their more recent statutory modification. I argue that the history and present form of work law are not consistent with the contract-centered view of work law as " interfering " with an otherwise free labor market. In addition, I set the stage for a future research project in which I will argue that since work relationships permit employers to exercise authority over workers, a just work law would narrowly circumscribe employers' authority in order to achieve work law's justifiable aims while minimizing overreaching by employers.
"New Legal Realism" is a thriving and productive interdisciplinary movement in academic legal the... more "New Legal Realism" is a thriving and productive interdisciplinary movement in academic legal theory and analysis. It often involves attempts to explain or predict judicial decision-making by reference to patterns of judicial behavior identified in close analysis of empirical data. In this article, rather than attempting to evaluate the actual or potential success of this approach, I aim to point out three important limitations. I draw examples from the work of prominent scholars Lee Epstein, Jack Knight, and Howard Gillman, and argue that their ambitious claims with respect to (1) judicial psychology, (2) the best answers to questions of law, and (3) jurists' character or the morality of their actions constitute regrettable attempts to derive unwarranted conclusions based on insufficient and inapposite data and arguments. I conclude that New Legal Realists should avoid these misapplications in order to confine their promising research project to its proper bounds.
A familiar trope in both scholarly writing and folk wisdom suggests that so long as workers are f... more A familiar trope in both scholarly writing and folk wisdom suggests that so long as workers are free to choose from among some reasonable set of options, the law should avoid regulating these options to the greatest extent possible. In this Article, I examine the similar "escape plans" proposed by John Stuart Mill and Thomas Jefferson as putatively sufficient legal intervention to relieve the plight of wage workers. My focus differs from that of Professor Justin Schwartz, who offers, in a recent paper, a detailed and cogent discussion of the reasons why Mill's prediction, in particular, for the "probable futurity" of workers turned out to be so inaccurate. Instead, I concentrate on the normative question whether either Mill's or Jefferson's proposal could have satisfied the demands of justice if it had come to pass. I conclude that no matter how attractive a given "exit option" might appear to its proponents, the law cannot, merely by making the option available to workers, sidestep its obligation to regulate wage labor and other working relationships and ensure that they are just for all concerned.
Mill's theories of the aesthetic virtues require a great deal of exegesis and are, in any case, b... more Mill's theories of the aesthetic virtues require a great deal of exegesis and are, in any case, beyond the scope of this paper. For my purposes, I will merely point out that it is widely acknowledged that Mill emphasized the importance of living a life of aesthetic as well as moral value much more than most other Utilitarians, especially his contemporaries. 42 England is not a large country, especially with respect to land area.
Mill's theories of the aesthetic virtues require a great deal of exegesis and are, in any case, b... more Mill's theories of the aesthetic virtues require a great deal of exegesis and are, in any case, beyond the scope of this paper. For my purposes, I will merely point out that it is widely acknowledged that Mill emphasized the importance of living a life of aesthetic as well as moral value much more than most other Utilitarians, especially his contemporaries. 42 England is not a large country, especially with respect to land area.
In this article, I critically examine the claim that work law is best conceived as a subspecies o... more In this article, I critically examine the claim that work law is best conceived as a subspecies of contract law, arguing that this characterization is neither descriptively accurate nor normatively instructive. Rather than understanding work law as a set of restraints on freedom of contract, we should see it as creating and defining special relationships, much like the codified definitions of marriages and business partnerships. I trace the development of work relationships through the common law of " master and servant " and their more recent statutory modification. I argue that the history and present form of work law are not consistent with the contract-centered view of work law as " interfering " with an otherwise free labor market. In addition, I set the stage for a future research project in which I will argue that since work relationships permit employers to exercise authority over workers, a just work law would narrowly circumscribe employers' authority in order to achieve work law's justifiable aims while minimizing overreaching by employers.
"New Legal Realism" is a thriving and productive interdisciplinary movement in academic legal the... more "New Legal Realism" is a thriving and productive interdisciplinary movement in academic legal theory and analysis. It often involves attempts to explain or predict judicial decision-making by reference to patterns of judicial behavior identified in close analysis of empirical data. In this article, rather than attempting to evaluate the actual or potential success of this approach, I aim to point out three important limitations. I draw examples from the work of prominent scholars Lee Epstein, Jack Knight, and Howard Gillman, and argue that their ambitious claims with respect to (1) judicial psychology, (2) the best answers to questions of law, and (3) jurists' character or the morality of their actions constitute regrettable attempts to derive unwarranted conclusions based on insufficient and inapposite data and arguments. I conclude that New Legal Realists should avoid these misapplications in order to confine their promising research project to its proper bounds.
A familiar trope in both scholarly writing and folk wisdom suggests that so long as workers are f... more A familiar trope in both scholarly writing and folk wisdom suggests that so long as workers are free to choose from among some reasonable set of options, the law should avoid regulating these options to the greatest extent possible. In this Article, I examine the similar "escape plans" proposed by John Stuart Mill and Thomas Jefferson as putatively sufficient legal intervention to relieve the plight of wage workers. My focus differs from that of Professor Justin Schwartz, who offers, in a recent paper, a detailed and cogent discussion of the reasons why Mill's prediction, in particular, for the "probable futurity" of workers turned out to be so inaccurate. Instead, I concentrate on the normative question whether either Mill's or Jefferson's proposal could have satisfied the demands of justice if it had come to pass. I conclude that no matter how attractive a given "exit option" might appear to its proponents, the law cannot, merely by making the option available to workers, sidestep its obligation to regulate wage labor and other working relationships and ensure that they are just for all concerned.
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Papers by Stephen Nayak-Young