Legal positivists hold that the law is whatever judges say it is—or, in more technical language, that the law's meaning is set by a consensus among interpreters of the law. But this suggests that if there is no consensus, then the law means nothing. And that sounds crazy! Legal philosophers Brian Leiter and Scott Shapiro, who stopped by BhTV this week, bring viewers up to speed on the philosophical background of this issue, and then get into the meat of it. Bonus: Brian and Scott take turns explaining why they are positivists to begin with.
Local News
A blogginghead, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, has been named to President-elect Obama's economic transition team. And with good reason! Back in May, while critiquing the Bear Sterns bailout on BhTV, Reich expressed the then-radical view that taxpayers should get equity in firms they keep afloat. A few months later, with passage of the $700 billion Paulson bailout package, this fringe idea became mainstream policy. At Bloggingheads.tv, today's crackpots are tomorrow's sages.
This Just In
This year's Nobel Prize in Economics has been awarded to a blogginghead, Paul Krugman. Last year he appeared on the site with Mario Cuomo and opined on everything from combating income inequality to achieving universal health care. Let's hope that the note of optimism on which he ended the diavlog has survived the last few weeks of financial news. In any event, we congratulate Paul, and we thank the Royal Swedish Academy for watching BhTV.
