Liability and Responsibility: Essays in Law and Morals

Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Law

by R.G. Frey (Editor), Christopher W. Morris (Editor)

This collection of contemporary essays by a group of well-known philosophers and legal theorists covers various topics in the philosophy of law, focusing on issues concerning liability in contract, tort, and criminal law. The book is divided into four sections. The first provides a conceptual overview of the issues at stake in a philosophical discussion of liability and responsibility. The second, third, and fourth sections present, in turn, more detailed explorations of the roles of notions of liability and responsibility in contracts, torts, and punishment. The collection not only presents some of the most challenging work being done in legal philosophy today, it also demonstrates the interdisciplinary character of the field of philosophy of law, with contributors taking into account recent developments in economics, political science, and rational choice theory. This thought-provoking volume will help to shed light on the underexplored ground that lies between law and morals.

444 pages, Hardcover

First published March 29, 1991

About the author

Raymond Gillespie Frey (1941-2012) was Professor of Philosophy at Bowling Green State University, specializing in moral, political and legal philosophy, and author or editor of a number of books, including Interests and Rights: The Case Against Animals (1980), Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide (1998, with Gerald Dworkin and Sissela Bok), and The Oxford Handbook of Animal Ethics (2011, with Tom Beauchamp).

David DeGrazia wrote in 1991 that Frey was one of five authors – along with Peter Singer, Tom Regan, Mary Midgley, and Steve Sapontzis – who had made significant philosophical contributions to the work of placing animals within ethical theory.

Frey obtained his B.A. in philosophy in 1966 from The College of William and Mary, his M.A. in 1968 from the University of Virginia, and his D.Phil. in 1974 from the University of Oxford – where his supervisor was R. M. Hare – for a thesis on "Rules and Consequences as Grounds for Moral Judgment."