Claire Finkelstein
Algernon Biddle Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy; Director, Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law
Claire Finkelstein writes at the intersection of moral and political philosophy and the law. She has published extensively in the areas of criminal law theory, moral and political philosophy as applied to legal questions, jurisprudence, and rational choice theory, and has recently begun writing on the law and ethics of war. Claire Finkelstein writes at the intersection of moral and political philosophy and the law. She has published extensively in the areas of criminal law theory, moral and political philosophy as applied to legal questions, jurisprudence, and rational choice theory, and has recently begun writing on the law and ethics of war. One of her distinctive contributions is bringing philosophical rational choice theory to bear on legal theory. She has focused in recent years on the implications of Hobbes’ political theory for substantive legal questions. She is currently finishing a book entitled Contractarian Legal Theory and is the editor (with Jens Ohlin and Andrew Altman) of a volume entitled Targeted Killings: Law & Mortality in an Asymmetrical World (Oxford University Press, 2012), and of Hobbes on Law (Ashgate, 2005). She has been a Co-Director of Penn’s Institute for Law and Philosophy, and this year will be continuing the work of the Institute under the heading Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law.
Expertise
- Criminal Law
- Contracts
- Legal Philosophy
- Moral and Political Philosophy
- Rational Choice Theory
- Jurisprudence
- Law of War
Books
TARGETED KILLINGS: LAW AND MORALITY IN AN ASYMMETRICAL WORLD (Claire Finkelstein, Jens Ohlin, & Andrew Altman, eds., Oxford University Press, 2012).
HOBBES ON LAW, editor of volume for Ashgate Publishing (2005).
[Available Here]
Articles and Book Chapters
CONTRACTARIAN LEGAL THEORY (book manuscript available upon request). (forthcoming)
Hobbesian Legal Reasoning and the Problem of Wicked Laws, in HOBBES TODAY (Sharon Lloyd, ed., Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2011). (forthcoming 2011)
Contractarianism, in ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY (Fred D’Agostino and Gerry Gaus, eds., Routledge 2012).
Responsibility for Acts of War and the Equal Morality of Soldiers, 10 J. INT’L CRIM. JUST. __ (forthcoming 2011)
Punishment as Contract, 8 OHIO ST. J. CRIM. L. 319 (2011).
A Contractarian Argument Against the Death Penalty, 81 N.Y.U. L. REV. 1283 (2006).
Hobbes and the Internal Point of View, 75 FORDHAM L. REV. 1211 (2006).
Two Models of Murder: Patterns of Criminalization in the United States, in HOMICIDE LAW IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE (Jeremy Horder and David Hughes, eds. 2007).
Responsibility for Unintended Consequences, 2 OHIO ST. J. CRIM. L. 579 (2005).
Is Risk a Harm?, 151 U. PA. L. REV. 963 (2003).
A Puzzle About Hobbes on Self-Defense, 82 PACIFIC PHIL. Q. 332 (2001).
The Inefficiency of Mens Rea, 88 CAL. L. REV. 895 (2000).
More publications can be found here.
Working Papers
Contract Under Coercion: Should You Keep a Contract with a Robber? (manuscript available upon request). (forthcoming)
Responsibility and the Doctrine of Double Effect (forthcoming)
Pragmatic Rationality and Risk (Symposium in Honor of David Gauthier on the Occasion of the 25th Anniversary of Morals by Agreement), __ ETHICS __ (forthcoming 2012). (forthcoming 2012)
Constrained Maximization and Risk, (included in symposium on work of David Gauthier, submitted to ETHICS). (forthcoming)
On Doing Something Unintended, Intentionally. (forthcoming)
Rational Contractarianism and International Law, in HOBBES AND THE LAW (David Dyzenhaus and Tom Poole, eds., Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2012). (forthcoming 2012)
Hobbes on Contract (forthcoming)
Research Areas
- Criminal Law
- Legal Philosophy
- Contracts
- Moral Philosophy
- Political Philosophy
- Rational Choice Theory
Positions
Penn Law - Algernon Biddle Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy (2009- ); Professor of Law and Philosophy (2001-09); Co-Director, Institute for Law and Philosophy (2009- ); Visiting Faculty (2000-01)
University of California, Berkeley - Professor of Law (1999-2000); Acting Professor of Law (1995-99)
Visits and Fellowships - Siemens Fellow, American Academy in Berlin (2008); Harsanyi Fellow, Center for Social and Political Philosophy, Research School for the Social Sciences, Australian National University (2000); Princeton Center for Human Values, Princeton University (1998-99)
American Academy in Berlin, Siemens Fellow (Spring 2008)
Professional Activities
Law and Philosophy, Advisory Board
AALS Section on Jurisprudence, Chair 2002-03
Courses
- Criminal Law
- Contracts
- Political Philosophy
- Introduction to Ethics
- Action Theory
- Jurisprudence
- Rationality, Norms, and the Law
- Contractarianism and the Law
- Jurisprudence of War Crimes
- Law and Ethics of War
- Evidence