The Lunchtime Lecture Series

“Law, Democracy and International Human Rights: how law embodies and sometimes distorts basic moral values”

David Wood, Associate Professor of Law, University of Melbourne

Tuesday, November 8, 2005
12:00 - 1:15, Mason Hall D3 A & B

David Wood will consider two forms of morality: The first he calls "international human rights instruments morality," the morality embodied in such documents as the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights; the second he calls "ordinary social interaction morality," a morality embodied in but also distorted by various types of private law, such as contract, tort, and property law. The two forms of positive morality share the same foundation about why human persons matter, and matter equally. Wood will propose that the distortion consists in giving self-interest a false priority over the interests of others. He will focus only on contract law, which may be of special interest insofar as some political philosophers propose contractarian theories of political obligation and justice. He will argue, as against other suggested, innocent, explanations that contract law systematically distorts its underlying claimed foundation in the voluntary conduct of moral equals. The general thesis that private law as a whole distorts "ordinary social interaction morality" will not be defended here (for obvious time constraints), but it is suggested that the false legitimacy such law provides to the pursuit of self-interest presents a major challenge to human rights and their globalisation. A model of the relation between law and democracy is proposed to meet this challenge.

David Wood is Associate Professor in the Law Faculty, University of Melbourne, where he teaches legal philosophy and criminal law. He currently holds an Australian Research Council grant to work on the philosophy of criminal law. Dr. Wood is the author of Judicial Ethics: A Discussion Paper (Australian Institute of Judicial Administration, 1996), co-editor of Essays on Philosophy in Australia (Kluwer, I992), a co-author of Just Criminal Law (Federation Press, Sydney, forthcoming 2005), and has published on punishment and sentencing, judicial administration, corporate governance and business ethics, constitutional law and theory, and legal education.

The Center for Global Ethics and its Director Carol Gould invites George Mason faculty, staff, students and friends to join us for The Lunchtime Lecture Series featuring distinguished intellectuals working in the area of Global Ethics. Discussion and lite refreshments will follow each of our speakers' presentations. Please feel free to bring your lunch. For more information, please contact the Center for Global Ethics at cgethics@gmu.edu or visit our website as www.gmu.edu/centers/globalethics.