Question: How can it be possible to increase one’s autonomy by surrendering one’s power to decide certain issues, as one does when accepting the authority of law? Wouldn’t that amount to saying one is more free when one is less free?
Answer: The law always claims to have legitimate authority, but this has implications on our personal autonomy. The key issue is therefore whether the law’s claim to legitimate authority can be reconciled with individual autonomy. Anarchists, such as Wolff, argue that the law never has any legitimate authority because it never provides a moral reason to obey law just because it is law. Therefore, on this basis if a person accepts the law’s authority, then they are surrendering their personal autonomy so they are indeed less free. Others, such as Raz, take a more moderate approach, accepting that there is a conflict between our autonomy and law’s authority, but arguing that this is not always necessarily a bad thing. At the other extreme of the spectrum, Finnis argues that we must indeed some......(short extract)
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Details: - Mark: 70% | Course: Jurisprudence | Year: 2nd/3rd | Words: 1920 | References: No | Date written: Not available | Date submitted: April 05, 2011 | Coursework ID: 671
