Fall 2008

Lecture 1 of 3

Tuesday, September 23, 2008 -- 5:15Ð6:45 P.M.
Engineering 189
"Should We Abolish the Criminal Law?"
David D. Friedman, Department of Economics and School of Law, Santa Clara University

We have two different legal systems, criminal law and tort law, which do
essentially the same thing in different ways. Do we need both? Professor
Friedman examines the redundancy in our legal infrastructure and the role of
the state in explaining the origin of these often parallel systems.
Professor Friedman is the author of numerous books including an intermediate
price theory text that went through two editions, plus an adaptation for the
general public, entitled Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life.
Professor Friedman is also the author of one of the most innovative law and
economics texts, Law's Order: What Economics Has to Do with Law and Why It
Matters. His articles and reviews have appeared in the Journal of Economic
History, the Independent Review, the Texas Law Review, the International
Philosophical Quarterly, and numerous other publications.

Lecture 2 of 3

Thursday, October 16, 2008 -- 5:15Ð6:45 P.M.
Martin Luther King Library, Room 225
"Should We Legalize Markets in Human Kidneys?"
James S. Taylor, Department of Philosophy, The College of New Jersey

Each year, over 4,000 people in the U.S. die waiting for a kidney
transplant. Demand for kidneys has increased five-fold since 1988 when data
was first collected. Supply, however, has only inched up with much of the
increase coming from living kidney donors. The kidney shortage is worldwide
and will only get worse. Demand is expected to grow rapidly fueled by an
aging population with diabetes. In January 2008, Britain's Prime Minister
Gordon Brown, suggested that every British citizen be automatically regarded
as an organ donor through a "presumed consent"policy. Presumed consent for
organ donation already exists in Spain and was recently adopted in India for
cornea transplants. Government control over your organs is only one way to
address the problem. Professor of Philosophy James Taylor proposes an
alternative solution to the shortage: legalize the sale of body parts.
Taylor will briefly outline the positive argument for legalizing a market in
human kidneys, and will then consider and rebut the most prominent ethical
objections.

James Stacey Taylor teaches philosophy at The College of New Jersey. He is
the author of Stakes and Kidneys: Why markets in human body parts are
morally imperative (Ashgate, 2005) and the editor of Personal Autonomy: New
essays (Cambridge, 2005). He has written numerous articles on autonomy,
applied ethics, and the metaphysics of death.

Lecture 3 of 3

Monday, November 17 -- 5:15-6:45 p.m.
Engineering 189
Tort Reform
Deborah LaFetra, Pacific Legal Foundation