Lyons, David For this reason, statistics measuring such things as recidivism or the incidence of certain crimes are useful in assessing the effectiveness of different kinds of punishment. He begins by lamenting what he sees as the limited progress in moral theory concerning first principles (I 1). If we focus on the good of the community to justify our Jeremy Bentham designed the utility calculus as a mechanism to apply utilitarian values to government policies; however, I discovered that the utility calculus is incredibly complex and relative. The man who is a mean drunk, losing his temper every time he gets liquored up, might kill people on a regular basis, if not restrained by incarceration; while the deliberate murderer might kill just once, collect his inheritance, and never break the law again. In other words, Federalist No. 5. The Constitutionalist and Utilitarian Justifications for Strong U.S. Patent and Copyright Systems, The Constitutional Foundations of Intellectual Property, U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment, Intellectual Property Rights in an Age of Electronics and Information. hasContentIssue true, Copyright Society of Legal Scholars 1992. Nick Smith is professor and chairperson of the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Department of Philosophy. She is enrolled in the University Honors Program and pursuing Honors in Major in political science and philosophy. Utilitarian Justification: Sees some aspect of the environment as valuable because it benefits individuals economically or is directly necessary to human survival. utilitarian justification Essay Examples. The fact that statutory grants of IP rights have unquestioned utility and promote the public good is not a denigration of these natural rights; to the contrary, it should be seen as an acknowledgment that these particular natural rights also have the added merit of advancing broad social goals. Certainly, coherent and functional copyright and patent systems seem to presuppose a vibrant civil society under a duly constituted governing authority that must establish and enforce intellectual property systems, but civil law does not sever the connection between property rights and natural rights. In short, the happiness of society, while not exactly disregarded, becomes secondary to the happiness of the criminal. Top Tag's. smoking revenge civil war climate change the story of an hour diabetes university of michigan love freedom summary and response teenage pregnancy abstract mother leaders volunteerism. There is, however, no consensus on how to take these differences into account when evaluating policies. Proposals for the reform of patent litigation proceduresproposals that some commentators have argued would weaken patent rights. Next, by answering its questions, I determined whether the utility calculus would permit certain punishments. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that indicates that we should make the first heap as small as possible and the second one as large as possible. To support my research, I received funding from a Research Experience and Apprenticeship Program (REAP) grant through the University of New Hampshires Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research. As a utilitarian justification for capital punishment, the reform theory recommends the reform of society at large through the elimination of threatening individuals in the community. A. Furthermore, by raising the probability that patent applications will be denied and by injecting additional uncertainty into the evaluation of existing patents, these policy changes threaten to cause some socially beneficial patents (not just bad or inappropriate patents) not to be pursued. And what is true for capital punishment, is true generally. Its just county, he assured me. Some have claimed that one great Founder, Thomas Jefferson, was opposed to IP rights, but given the fact that Jefferson did not participate in drafting either the Constitution or The Federalist Papers, one should not accord too much weight to his views on IP. The need for different rules regarding different kinds of intangible property is akin to the need for different rules for different kinds of tangible property, whether real property, minerals, water, or personal property, but this in no way suggests that in a foundational sense, intangible property rights are any less grounded in natural right or in our constitutional order than tangible property rights are. Affirmative action is wrong. [39] See generally Alden F. Abbott, Abuse of Dominance by Patentees: A Pro-Innovation Perspective, Antitrust Source 1 (Oct. 2014), http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publishing/antitrust_source/oct14_abbott_10_21f.authcheckdam.pdf. Utilitarian View On Abortion. Copyright Office, http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ38a.pdf. After hearing about Benthams theories of government in a Social and Political Philosophy class taught by Professor Nick Smith, I began contemplating how utilitarianism and the utility calculus could be implemented into governmental systems. 2015-5 (Dec. 2015), http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2704028. 9. This empirical work is in accord with recent theoretical law and economics analyses that explain why the patent system functions as an engine of economic growth and innovation. Primarily an ethical system that should govern human conduct in the society, utilitarianism is much broader in its scope since several theorists from Bentham . Professor Clarisa Long has explained that patenting serves the key role of lowering information costs to firms, allowing firms to signal their research and development capabilities and human capital to capital markets and promoting beneficial licensing. On the other hand, if a man commits a deliberate, cold-blooded murder, retributive justice demands that he be put to death, for only then will the killer get what he deserves. The drug dealer, on the other hand, said that having to forgo all drugs, including marijuana, was so onerous a requirement, that some guys would refuse probation and serve out their full sentence instead. The financial cost of education typically is not extravagant and does not outweigh the long-term positives and happiness that education produces. This justification is based on the calculation that the benefits of the theft outweigh the losses caused by the theft. 22. [40] See generally Tom W. Bell, Intellectual Privilege (2014), http://mercatus.org/intellectualprivilege/Intellectual-Privilege.html#.VmXIyLgrK70. Consistent with this observation, May and Cooper view the Constitutions explicit singling out of IP rights as emphasizing their importance, not denigrating them in comparison with other property rights: In sum, both traditional forms of property and categories of property in its particular application, such as IP rights, qualify as natural rights. This becomes complicated in cases such as incarceration where, because of issues related to reintegrating into society with a criminal record, the pain that results from punishment lasts longer than the duration of the prison sentence. I, 8, cl. Moreover, a low recidivism rate would increase the happiness of society because taxpayers do not have to pay for multiple prison sentences and can benefit from the offender becoming a productive member of society. Admittedly, the fact that IP rights have solid constitutional backing does not address the question of how Congress should deal with them today. Even worse, an attenuation of American copyright not only would prove harmful to the U.S. creative community in the domestic market, but also would undermine efforts to ensure a reasonable international copyright regime. 1. 15. Published online by Cambridge University Press: And they were miserable. Burton, John Hill. Other statutes that generally enhanced patent rights were passed in 1832, 1837, 1839, 1842, 1848, 1849, 1851, and 1861. This has resulted in a number of enactments, both national and international, which purport to protect the environment in a number of ways - by controlling, for instance, the release of pollutants into the atmosphere, the dumping of waste products in the sea, the killing of marine life, the export of endangered species and so on. Trade Commn (Oct. 2003), https://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/reports/promote-innovation-proper-balance-competition-and-patent-law-and-policy/innovationrpt.pdf; The Evolving IP Marketplace: Aligning Patent Notice and Remedies with Competition, Fed. Running head: UTILITARIAN JUSTIFICATION Utilitarian Justification for Work Behavior: Exploring the Role of Peer Hostname: page-component-6f888f4d6d-82tdp The torturer's most potent threat to the captive and isolated subject may be that the torturer can do whatever he wills to the captive and there is no one to restrain him and no one to act as an advocate for the captive. [47] These initiatives are discussed in sources cited in Abbott, supra note 39, at 6 n.28. One type of punishment I considered was for people convicted of using a small amount of an illegal substance. The Patent Act of 1836 expanded terms of protection, established the U.S. Patent Office, and provided additional resources for processing patent applications. The utilitarian argument for redistribution of wealth is based upon three hypotheses. "Kos" and "Daily Kos" are registered trademarks of Kos Media, LLC. When we put. "displayNetworkTab": true, to. In particular, work by Professors Carl Shapiro and Mark Lemley on probabilistic patents made a public policy case for weakening patent protection. This consensus was reflected most notably in the U.S.s success in securing the 1994 adoption of strong IP protection in the World Trade Organizations TRIPS Agreement.[42]. 2005). By integrating the utilitarian value of happiness and unconventional punishments, such as rehabilitation and education, the happiness of convicts and society in general could increase. Lastly, I would like to thank my friends and family for always supporting me. Such a weakening would make it harder for U.S. officials to argue credibly for reasonable copyright protection overseas and would discourage efforts to root out piracy around the world. Not the Worst, but Not Norway: US Prisons vs. Other Models. HuffPost, 6 Sept. 2017, www.huffpost.com/entry/not-the-worst-but-not-norway-us-prisons-vs-other_ Piper Gibson is from Colebrook, Connecticut. Instead, multiple ideologies create inconsistency between the actions and stances the US criminal justice system takes. Basler et al. But when the value of a pleasure or pain is considered for the purpose of estimating the tendency of an act by which it is produced, two other circumstances must be taken into the account: (5) its fecundity, i.e. Before coming to UNH, Smith, who holds a JD and PhD, worked as a litigator for a private law firm and as a judicial clerk for the Honorable R.L. Nygaard of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. [17] George Washington called on the First Congress to pass legislation securing IP rights,[18] and it did so, enacting the nations first Copyright and Patent Acts in 1790. Philosophers have argued over exactly how the resulting good and evil may be identified and to whom the greatest good should belong. These forms have received less critical attention lately and are beyond the scope of this commentary.
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