Apr, 2024
24
EXRE Colloquium: Anthony Taylor – Usurping Official Power
Time: 17:15 - 19:00
EXRE Colloquium
Abstract:
Public officials—such as legislators, judges, and law enforcement officers—sometimes make mistakes. The question that this paper focusses on is whether the individuals who make these mistakes, by virtue of occupying their official role, sometimes possess a right against interference or harm that a private individual who made the same kind of mistake would not possess. Those who defend the possibility of legitimate injustice argue that public officials sometimes have more extensive rights against interference with their mistaken decisions than those held by equivalently situated private individuals. I consider and reject a recent attempt to vindicate the possibility of legitimate injustice, and defend an alternative approach.