Chapter 5 Self-test questions

. Which of the following best describes Dworkin's distinction between principles and policies?

Principles are legislative, policies are precedents.

Principles describe rights, policies describe duties.

Principles are democratic, policies are autocratic.

Principles describe rights, policies describe goals.

. Dworkin contends that to every legal question there is only one right answer. Which proposition below is most inconsistent with this claim?

In hard cases judges generally decide cases on the basis of rights.

The rights of the parties feature in the determination of most cases before the courts.

Judges exercise strong discretion.

Judges seek the best 'fit' with constitutional and institutional history.

. What does Dworkin mean by the 'semantic sting'?

The language of the law is generally unclear.

Lawyers' arguments usually concern language.

Judges are prey to linguistic misunderstanding.

The rule of recognition cannot fully account for legal validity.

. Why does Dworkin support liberal egalitarianism?

Because it attempts to give effect to personal choice over individual luck.

Because liberty is more important than equality.

Because a market economy is just.

Because the state is the best arbiter of equality between individuals.

. Which statement below is the least likely to follow logically from Dworkin's notion of law as integrity?

It is likely to generate more individual rights and greater liberty.

It renders a community more genuine.

It opens the door to authoritarianism.

It improves the moral justification for the exercise of political power.

. Dworkin argues that it is only a conception of equality of resources that can secure the ideal of equality of welfare. How does he suggest this aspect of equality to be measured?

When no-one would prefer another's bundle of resources to his or her own.

By reference to the ownership of private property.

By the amount of income tax paid by individuals.

When the community determines that equality has been achieved.

. Which statement best describes one of Dworkin's central arguments in Justice for Hedgehogs?

Morality plays no role in the concept of law.

Moral arguments operate only in hard cases.

The law dictates what moral values should affect our ethical behaviour.

Moral values are both independent and objective.

. In Justice for Hedgehogs Dworkin endorses 'Hume's principle'. What does he understand by this idea?

That there is no distinction between law and morality.

That there is a distinction between right and wrong.

That facts about the world or human nature cannot normally ordain what ought to be

That human rights are fundamentally unsound.

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