The Meaning of Harm

Thomas J. Miceli (thomas.miceli@uconn.edu)
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Thomas J. Miceli: University of Connecticut

Chapter Chapter 10 in Harm and Responsibility, 2024, pp 223-251 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This chapter uses the insights from Chapter 9 to examine the meaning of harm, and, by extension, the appropriate content of criminal law. The idea of reciprocal causation implies that harm is not a clearly defined concept, but is only understood in relation to a particular definition of legal rights. This is a manifestation of the fundamental economic insight that harm can always be defined as a foregone benefit, and benefit as an avoided harm. The chapter draws out the implications of this idea for contemporary policy debates regarding civil disobedience, cancel culture, expression of identity, freedom of speech, and victimless crimes. It concludes by acknowledging the limit of economic theory for determining the meaning of harm.

Keywords: Content of law; Civil disobedience; Cancel culture; Identity expression; Freedom of speech; Victimless crimes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-031-74831-8_10

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-74831-8_10

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