>>> kenneth.mackendrick at utoronto.ca 07/10/00 04:20PM >>>
On Mon Jul 10 15:11:20 2000 JKSCHW at aol.com wrote:
> The example does not support the conclusion. If I take an umbrella that
belonds to someone else, thinking that it belongs to me, I have not committed a
crime, but that is not because private property is unjust or some such, but
because I lack the requisite mental state for theft, the intention to
permanantly derive someone else of his property.
Ok, bad example. Say I kill someone in self-defence: if we describe this as a violation permitted by the law, we have a paradox.
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CB: The way "they" say it is that self-defense is a complete defense to a charge of unlawful killing.
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The paradox disappears however if the moment we realize that the case of necessity is not an instance of the law. In short, in such a case the judge would declar that no law has been violated, not that I was legally justified in violating the law... that's all.
ken