Harm to Others [Paperback]

This first volume in the four-volume seriesThe Moral Limits of the Criminal Lawfocuses on the harm principle, the commonsense view that prevention of harm to persons other than the perpetrator is a legitimate purpose of criminal legislation. Feinberg presents a detailed analysis of the concept and definition of harm and applies it to a host of practical and theoretical issues, showing how the harm principle must be interpreted if it is to be a plausible guide to the lawmaker.

General Introduction: The Basic Question of the Book
* The Concept of Moral Legitimacy * The Idea of a Liberty-Limiting Prinviple * Commonly Proposed Liberty-Limiting Principles * Liberalism * Methodology * Primary and Derrivative Crimes * Alternatives to the Criminal Law * Skepticism
VOLUME ONE: HARM TO OTHERS
I Harms as Setbacks to Interest: Meaning of Harm
* Welfare Interests and Ulterior Interests * Interests and Wants * Harms, Hurts, and Offenses * The Manner in which Acts and Other Events Affect Interests When They Do Harm * The Concept of an Interest Network * Legally Protectable Interests *
II Puzzling Cases: Moral Harm
* Other-Regarding Interests and Vicarious Harms * Death and Posthumous Harms * Surviving Interests * The Proper Subject of Surviving Interests * Doomed Interest and the Dating of Harm * A Note on Posthumous Wrongs * Birth and Prenatal Harms *
III Harming as Wronging: The Verbal Forms: To Harm and to Wrong
* Harming and Injuring * Moral Indefensibility * Harming as Right-Violating * Harm and Consent: the Volenti maxim * The Concept of a Victim * The Casual Component in Harming *
IV Failing to Prevent Harm: East Rescue and the Bad Samaritan
* The Confusion of Active Aid with Gratuitous Benefit * Lord macauley's Line-Drawing Problem * Omissions an Other Inactions * Are Legal Dutl£B