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Luban, David

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Prominent challenges to Walzer’s theory were advanced by Richard Wasserstrom, Gerald Doppelt and Charles Beitz. For the best-known critical essays, see the following: Wasserstrom (1978), Doppelt (1978); and Beitz (1979).

  2. 2.

    I have neglected to discuss Luban’s contributions in the area of jus in bello (the portion of just war theory concerning individual soldiers’ actions in combat). In this area, Luban has produced pioneering works connecting just war arguments to the emerging area of international criminal law. Arguably the most prominent are the following three: (1) Luban (2011); (2) Luban et al. (2014); and (3) Luban (2004).

  3. 3.

    Legal Ethics and Human Dignity reappraises, expands, and updates arguments originally defended in Luban’s earliest work on legal ethics, called Lawyers and Justice (1988). Together with a casebook entitled Legal Ethics (coauthored with Rhode and Cummings 2013), these three works on the ethics of legal practice represent a significant segment of the field.

  4. 4.

    For an example of this challenge, see Kruse (2008) and also Smith (1991).

  5. 5.

    For critiques of this kind, see Silver (2008).

  6. 6.

    Luban (2007b). Here is how Luban himself depicts the metaphor. “Suppose the bomb is planted somewhere in the crowded heart of an American city; and you have custody of the man who planted it. He won’t talk. Surely, the hypothetical suggests, we should not be too squeamish to torture the information out of him and save hundreds of lives. Consequences count, and abstract moral prohibitions must yield to the calculus of consequences” (252).

  7. 7.

    Perhaps the best defense of these arguments is recorded in Luban’s testimony before congressional committees. See the following two documents: (1) David Luban, What Went Wrong: Torture and the Office of Legal Counsel in the Bush Administration: Hearing Before the Subcomm. On Admin. Oversight and the Courts of the S. Comm. On the Judiciary, 111th Cong. May 13, 2009; and (2) David Luban, Department of Justice to Guantánamo Bay: Administration Lawyers and Administration Interrogation Rules, Part 1: Hearing Before the Subcomm. On the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the H. Comm. On the Judiciary, 110th Cong., May 6, 2008.

References

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  • Luban D (1980b) The romance of the nation-state. Philos Public Aff 9:392–397

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  • Luban D (1988) Lawyers and justice. Princeton University Press, Princeton

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  • Luban D (2004) A theory of crimes against humanity. Yale J Int Law 29:85–167

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  • Luban D (2007a) Legal ethics and human dignity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

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  • Luban D (2007b) Liberalism, torture and the ticking bomb. In: Lee S (ed) Intervention, terrorism, and torture: challenges to just war theory in the 21st century. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 249–262

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  • Luban D (2009) Human dignity, humiliation and torture. Kennedy Inst Ethics J 19:211–230

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  • Luban D (2011) War as punishment. Philos Public Aff 39:299–330

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  • Luban D (2014) Torture, power and law. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Queens University, Kingston, ON, Canada

    Michael Kocsis

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  1. Michael Kocsis
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Correspondence to Michael Kocsis .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for International & Comparative Law, University of Baltimore School of Law, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Mortimer Sellers

  2. Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften, University of Salzburg, Austria, Salzburg, Austria

    Stephan Kirste

Section Editor information

  1. Philosophy Department, Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA

    Sally Scholz Ph.D

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Kocsis, M. (2018). Luban, David. In: Sellers, M., Kirste, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_119-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_119-3

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