Dr. David Lefkowitz
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Profile
Dr. David Lefkowitz specializes in legal and political philosophy. Among the courses he teaches on a semi-regular basis are Philosophy of Law, a First Year Seminar on Philosophy and the Criminal Law, and for the PPEL Program, a Capstone Seminar on the Ethics, Economics, and Politics of New Information and Communication Technologies.
Dr. Lefkowitz’s research interests span three overlapping areas: (1) the morality of obedience and disobedience to law (e.g., the basis, if any, of a moral duty to obey the law, the moral justifiability of civil disobedience, and the just treatment of conscientious objectors); (2) analytical and normative issues in international law (e.g., the legitimacy of international law, the existence (or not) of an international rule of law, and the nature of customary international law); and (3) substantive moral questions in the conduct of international affairs (e.g. the morality of secession, and the just conduct of war). Dr. Lefkowitz is the author of Philosophy and International Law: A Critical Introduction (2020), as well as more than forty journal articles and book chapters.
From Fall 2009 through Spring 2015 Dr. Lefkowitz served as the founding coordinator of the Program in Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law (PPEL), an interdisciplinary major with a focus on normative questions of law and public policy. Dr. Lefkowitz has held fellowships at Princeton University, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the National University of Singapore, and served as a visiting research scholar at Pompeu Fabra University. More information on his scholarship and teaching can be found at https://blog.richmond.edu/lefkowitz/.
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Grants and Fellowships
National Endowment for the Humanities
With the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, I spent the summer and early fall of 2011 enhancing a course on the Philosophy of Crime and Punishment that I have taught for several years. As I wrote in my application for an NEH Teaching Development Fellowship, the value of this course lies not only in its consideration of pressing moral questions regarding the justification of punishment and various features of the general part of the criminal law, but also in its use of concrete examples from the criminal law to introduce students to abstract philosophical questions concerning the nature of morally right action, responsibility, and causation.
Per the terms of the grant, I make available here a copy of the syllabus for the course along with all of the assignments I have created for it. I welcome feedback on any or all of this material. I thank the NEH for its support of this project; any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations contained in these materials do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Grants and Fellowships
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Selected Publications
Books
Philosophy and International Law: A Critical Introduction. (2020) Cambridge University Press.
Journal Articles‘A New Philosophy for International Legal Skepticism?’ (2024) International Theory, https://doi.org/10.1017/S1752971924000010.
‘Political Feasibility and a Global Climate Treaty.” (2023) Ethics, Policy, and Environment, https://doi.org/10.1080/21550085.2023.2282915.
‘Civil Liability for Civil Disobedience.’ (2023) Jarbuch für Recht und Ethik (Annual Review of Law and Ethics), 31:1, 93-106.
‘Pragmatism and Associative Political Obligations.’ (2022) Political Studies 72:1, 267-284.
‘International Law, Institutional Moral Reasoning, and Secession.’ (2018) Law and Philosophy 37:4, 1-29.
‘What Makes a Social Order Primitive? In Defense of Hart’s Take on International Law.’ (2017) Legal Theory 23:4, 258-82.
‘In Defense of Penalizing (but not Punishing) Civil Disobedience.’ (2017) Res Publica 24, 273-289.
‘Should the Law Convict Those Who Act From Conviction? In Defense of a Demands of Conscience Criminal Defense.’ (2016) Criminal Law and Philosophy 10:4, 657-75.
‘Autonomy, Residence, and Return.’ (2015) Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 18:5, 529-46.
‘The Principle of Fairness and States’ Duty to Obey International Law.’ (2011) Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 24:2, 327-46.
‘Legitimate Authority, Following Orders, and Wars of Questionable Justice.’ (2010) Journal of Political Philosophy 18:2, 218-27.
‘Partiality and Weighing Harm to Non-combatants.’ (2009) Journal of Moral Philosophy 6:3, 298-316.
‘On the Foundation of Rights to Political Self-Determination: Secession, Non-Intervention, and Democratic Governance.’ (2008) Journal of Social Philosophy 39:4, 492-511.
‘On the Concept of a Morally Relevant Harm,’ (2008) Utilitas 20:4, 409-23.
‘On a Moral Right to Civil Disobedience.’ (2007) Ethics: An International Journal of Social, Political and Legal Philosophy 117:2, 202-33.
‘A Contractualist Defense of Democratic Authority.’ (2005) Ratio Juris 18:3, 346-64.
Book Chapters‘State Consent and the Legitimacy of International Law.” (2023) In Consenting to International Law, Samantha Besson (ed.), Cambridge University Press, 49-71.
‘Fragile, Nascent, and in Critical Condition: Dworkin on International Law.’ (2022) In Conceptual (Re)Constructions of International Law, Pauline Westerman, Kostiantyn Gorobets, and Andreas Hadjigeorgiou (eds.), Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022: 55-73.
‘Civil Disobedience by States?’ (2021) In Cambridge Companion To Civil Disobedience, William E. Scheuerman (ed.), Cambridge University Press, 338-358.
‘Global Legal Pluralism and the Rule of Law.’ (2020) In Oxford Handbook on Global Legal Pluralism, Paul Schiff Berman (ed.), Oxford University Press, 365-382.
‘Sources in Legal Positivist Theories.’ (2017) In Oxford Handbook on the Sources of International Law, Samantha Besson and Jean D’Aspremont (eds.), Oxford University Press, 323-41.
‘The Sources of International Law: Some Philosophical Reflections.’ (2010) in Philosophy of International Law, Samantha Besson and John Tasioulas (eds.), Oxford University Press, 187-203.
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