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James Madison once said that if people
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were angels we would have no use for law
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uh my work in legal philosophy and moral
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philosophy shows that James Madison
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wasn't right about this uh of course we
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need law in government to address a
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variety of human moral failings uh but
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even morally very good people would need
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uh law and government to get along well
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together my program has two sides one
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side of my research program is concerned
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with specific legal institutions uh that
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facilitate or hinder citizens having
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good moral relationships with each other
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uh this includes some work on democratic
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theory as well as some work on
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Healthcare Justice uh the other side of
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my program which I'd like to say a
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little bit more about concerns the
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relationship between law and law
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enforcement um if you believe as Madison
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did that the only point to law is
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addressing human misbehavior then you'll
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probably think that law has no point
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unless there are sanctions attached to
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legal prohibitions on this view there's
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no point to telling people to do
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something uh or the government telling
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people to do something unless the order
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is backed up with the threat to law
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Breakers to put them in prison to find
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them to compel payment of Damages or
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something of that nature I argue that
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law can serve morally important purposes
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even when it's unenforced or under
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enforced law can be morally binding on
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us quite apart from the effect that any
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sanctions have here's an example
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consider an income tax law that's uh
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either entirely unenforced or under
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enforced of course under enforcement is
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the situation they're that we're in
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because there are some forms of income
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that aren't subject to third party
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withholding or reporting uh and the IRS
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estimates that in 2006 I believe it's
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54% of uh people who owe uh taxon
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amounts that are not subject to third
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party reporting or withholding uh do uh
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misrepresent the amount that they're
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owing that's a lot of people cheating on
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their taxes but it's also a lot of
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people who are paying their taxes
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honestly even though there isn't a
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reliable enforcement mechanism to uh
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sanction them if they don't um so I
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focus on the ethical question here if
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you're in this situation you have under
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uh income that you could conceal from
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the IRS or another tax Authority and if
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you know that roughly half of your
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fellow citizens are shirking the tax and
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roughly half are paying it honestly
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what's your moral
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obligation well uh tax laws serve a
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morally important purpose they attempt
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to organize um uh support for morally
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important public goods such as public
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safety and to do it in a fair way of
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course if some people aren't paying
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their assigned share that's unfair but
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you would be compounding the unfairness
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or the Injustice if you chose to join
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their number um it would be unjust free
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writing not to pay your fair share the
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right thing to do is to report your
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income honestly and pay the tax um so
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this is an illustration of a general
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principle often there's a moral
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obligation to obey laws that are
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unenforced or under enforced and this is
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important partly because there's
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sometimes good reasons not to enforce a
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law for example there might be resource
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limitations on the part of law
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enforcement or there may be on uh
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privacy considerations it might be
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impossible to enforce a law effectively
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without an undue
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intrusion two key points first um for
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Citizens and residents there can be a
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moral obligation to follow laws that are
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unenforced or under enforced just
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because you could get away with breaking
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the law doesn't mean you're entitled to
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morally um this is going to apply when
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there's no enforcement on the books at
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all when there's uh there are sanctions
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on on the books but they're rarely
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applied it'll also apply when there are
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sanctions on the books that are applied
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but there're too slight to affect
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Behavior by
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themselves the other major takeaways for
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legislators sometimes legislators uh
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have reason to believe that a law that's
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being proposed couldn't be enforced both
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efficiently and fairly um that alone
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shouldn't take a proposal off the table
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sometimes the right thing for a
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legislature to do is to enact a new law
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uh demands that citizens take that law
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seriously but not back that demand up
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with a threat of
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sanctions this argument is going to be
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relevant to business people who are
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facing difficult questions about whether
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to follow an under enforced law when
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following that law might be might not be
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narrowly in the firm's interest um
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here's a not so hypothetical example
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suppose that there is a labor law
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requiring overtime pay for certain
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categories of workers and let's suppose
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that this law is under enforced because
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uh the only liability is uh back pay
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plus interest an employer that is
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narrowly
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self-interested might choose simply not
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to pay the overtime because the the the
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the sanctions on the books aren't enough
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to um effectively deter uh
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non-payment there may nonetheless be a
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moral obligation to pay overtime pay uh
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given the importance of this law in a
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fair scheme of economic
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cooperation my arguments are going to
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have particular application in the
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international context uh sometimes an
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multinational business is doing business
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in a lower middle-income country where
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law enforcement has resource limitations
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and prevents them from enforcing all of
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the socially important laws effectively
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I argue that the moral obligation to
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follow socially important laws isn't
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limited to the laws of One's Own country
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one can also have a moral obligation to
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follow socially important laws when
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one's doing business as a
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visitor on this side of my research
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program I have uh three directions that
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I'd like to explore first I'd look like
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to look more closely at the effects if
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any of comp ition on what obligations
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businesses have to obey un enforced or
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under enforced laws um are there
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situations in which a very tightly
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competitive market makes it genuinely
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infeasible to obey and under enforce law
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and if so is the moral could the moral
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obligation to support uh morally
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important legal institutions be
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fulfilled by participating in some kind
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of institution building instead that's
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one future direction another is is to
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look at what uh forms of enforcement are
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appropriate in a business context uh in
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particular I I plan to look at General
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moral principles that apply to the use
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of force and see what they have to say
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about when imprisonment is an
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appropriate penalty for white collar
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crimes or for non-violent property
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crimes more
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General um last I'd like to look more
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closely at the international context and
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in particular at the question what
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should a business due a multinational
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business due if it has reason to believe
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that some of its business partners uh in
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a resource poor settings uh are breaking
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the law uh perhaps because the law isn't
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effectively enforced perhaps because law
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enforcement has resource limitations
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here's a relevant example in 2013 there
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was a terrible building collapse in
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Bangladesh um an eight-story building
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collapsed killing over a thousand people
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and injuring over 2500 more uh and the
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building collaps because it wasn't up to
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code if they'd followed the local
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building codes which were under enforced
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the people wouldn't have died um part of
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that building was being used as a
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garment Factory that manufactured
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garments for export so I'd like to look
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at the question what obligations does a
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multi-national uh fast fashion
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Corporation have when it has reason to
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believe that its business partners in
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low and middle- income countries may not
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be following some important laws
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including safety codes
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[Music]
