University of Kansas, Spring 2005
Philosophy 674: Philosophy of Law
Ben Eggleston—eggleston@ku.edu

Preview of test on chapters 3–5

Your test on chapters 3–5 will have two parts, a take-home part and an in-class part.

I. Take-home part

The take-home part of your test consists of three essays worth 25 points each, and will be due at the beginning of class on Wednesday, April 6. You can use your book or notes or discussions with other people, but all the writing must be your own. Here are the three essay assignments.

  1. Explain the basis on which Rehnquist claims, in his opinion in the case of Washington v. Glucksberg, that Washington’s ban on physician-assisted suicide does not violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
  2. Explain the difference between traditionalist and legal-realist views regarding what the rules of private law say. Illustrate this difference using an example, just as Altman illustrates this difference using the example of the labor injunction. But do not use any example Altman uses in his ‘Criticisms of the Public-Private Distinction' section (pp. 115–119)—including, of course, the labor-injunction example. (You can use a some other example from Altman’s book, or some other example from class, or you can make up your own example.)
  3. Altman discusses the extent to which the utilitarian, retributivist, and therapeutic approaches to punishment are compatible with the rule of law. With regard to each of these (write about them one at a time), explain his reasons for saying that it conflicts with the rule of law (or runs the risk of conflicting with the rule of law).

As before, when you turn in your answers, each answer must be on its own sheet of paper, and the sheets must not be stapled together. The formatting instructions are essentially the same as for the sheets you turned in for the test on chapters 1–2, except that your type size must be at least 12 points (not 11). Here are the main formatting guidelines:

  1. page
    1. Use one side of a single sheet of business-sized (8.5” x 11”) paper.
    2. Use margins of at least one inch on all four sides.
  2. type
    1. Use the font Times New Roman, or (if not available) the nearest available equivalent.
    2. Use a type size of at least 12 points. (As mentioned above, this is a change from before.)
    3. Use the same font and type size throughout the whole sheet.
    4. Double-space all the lines.
    5. Make the lines flush-left—that is, don’t right-justify them.
  3. On the first line, list the following items, separated by commas:
    1. Philosophy of Law
    2. 4/6/05
    3. test 2
    4. question X (where Y is the number of the question being answered on that sheet)
    5. answer Y (where Y is the three-digit code that will be used for this sheet and no other)
  4. Start each paragraph of your answer with a half-inch indentation (even if your answer is just one paragraph long).

As before, strict compliance with this precise protocol is needed for two important reasons: so that everyone operates within the same space constraints and so that I can grade each answer with a minimal chance of knowing who wrote it. For these reasons, deviations from this protocol will be penalized.

II. In-class part

The in-class part of your test will consist of six multiple-choice questions worth a total of 25 points, and will be given in class on Wednesday, April 6. You will have a total of 40 minutes—from 10:30 to 11:10—to answer these questions. You will not be able to use your book or any other resources.