On his book The Law of Good People: Challenging States' Ability to Regulate Human Behavior
Cover Interview of January 30, 2019
A close-up
The introduction, which provides some background, opens with
descriptive and normative questions that behavioral ethics brings to the legal
literature, such as people’s awareness and responsibilities concerning ethical
choices. The chapter creates the framework for the book, identifies the gaps in
the literature, and offers a paradigm for policy makers who wish to think about
unethicality in our society.
This chapter also allows readers to recognize the challenges
that the book creates for policy makers. Since many “good people” violate the
law, either because they feel that the violation is justified or because of
ignorance, many violations occur in areas that are rarely enforced by policy
makers; and there lies the danger. One of the examples I discuss in chapter nine is non-monetary conflict of interest. The effects of this violation, such as positive
media reports, invitations for keynote presentations, and others, are almost
never prosecuted but are nonetheless dangerous since the public will find it
harder to recognize them as problematic.
The last chapter in the book is also important for those who
are browsing. It focuses on recommendations and applications of the “good
people paradigm” for policy makers. It suggests how it might be possible to
combine the different regulatory interventions concerning people with a new approach
to law and ethics. Responsive regulation, an important paradigm discussed in
the book, suggests that by shifting from less intrusive to more intrusive measures,
interventions should be adaptable: different types of people require different
types of interventions. In earlier stages the focus should be on lack of
awareness of wrong-doing, while in later stages lack of motivation to comply
could be addressed. Only by recognizing that people differ with regard to their
level of awareness and their compliance motivation, policy makers will be able to develop the
right combination of legal instruments.
[T]he Holocaust transformed our whole way of thinking about war and heroism. War is no longer a proving ground for heroism in the same way it used to be. Instead, war now is something that we must avoid at all costs—because genocides often take place under the cover of war. We are no longer all potential soldiers (though we are that too), but we are all potential victims of the traumas war creates. This, at least, is one important development in the way Western populations envision war, even if it does not always predominate in the thinking of our political leaders.Carolyn J. Dean, Interview of February 01, 2011
The dominant premise in evolution and economics is that a person is being loyal to natural law if he or she attends to self’s interest and welfare before being concerned with the needs and demands of family or community. The public does not realize that this statement is not an established scientific principle but an ethical preference. Nonetheless, this belief has created a moral confusion among North Americans and Europeans because the evolution of our species was accompanied by the disposition to worry about kin and the collectives to which one belongs.Jerome Kagan, Interview of September 17, 2009
A close-up
The introduction, which provides some background, opens with descriptive and normative questions that behavioral ethics brings to the legal literature, such as people’s awareness and responsibilities concerning ethical choices. The chapter creates the framework for the book, identifies the gaps in the literature, and offers a paradigm for policy makers who wish to think about unethicality in our society.
This chapter also allows readers to recognize the challenges that the book creates for policy makers. Since many “good people” violate the law, either because they feel that the violation is justified or because of ignorance, many violations occur in areas that are rarely enforced by policy makers; and there lies the danger. One of the examples I discuss in chapter nine is non-monetary conflict of interest. The effects of this violation, such as positive media reports, invitations for keynote presentations, and others, are almost never prosecuted but are nonetheless dangerous since the public will find it harder to recognize them as problematic.
The last chapter in the book is also important for those who are browsing. It focuses on recommendations and applications of the “good people paradigm” for policy makers. It suggests how it might be possible to combine the different regulatory interventions concerning people with a new approach to law and ethics. Responsive regulation, an important paradigm discussed in the book, suggests that by shifting from less intrusive to more intrusive measures, interventions should be adaptable: different types of people require different types of interventions. In earlier stages the focus should be on lack of awareness of wrong-doing, while in later stages lack of motivation to comply could be addressed. Only by recognizing that people differ with regard to their level of awareness and their compliance motivation, policy makers will be able to develop the right combination of legal instruments.