Education

  • B.A., UC Berkeley
  • B.Phil. Oxford 1990
  • D.Phil. Oxford 1993
  • J.D. Harvard 1996

Research

Research Interests: Moral Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Law, Distributive Justice, Promising, Freedom of Speech, Intellectual Property, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Remedies, Bioethics.

Publications

Books

Articles

Democratic Civic Education and Democratic Law, in NOMOS LXVI: Civic Education in Polarized Times, (edited by Elizabeth Beaumont and Eric Beerbohm, NYU Press, 2024). SSRN

Reliance Arguments, Democratic Law, and Inequity, Jurisprudence (2023). SSRN | Full Text

Unfit to Print: Government Speech and the First Amendment, 69 UCLA L. Rev. 986 (2022). SSRN | Full Text

Hidden Delegations: The Assignment of Contractual Rights and Consumer Debt, MOD. L. REV. 1 (2022). SSRN | Full Text

Democratic Representation as Duty Delegation, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Association (2022). SSRN | Full Text

Compelled Speech and the Irrelevance of Controversy, 47  Pepperdine Law Review 731 (2020). Full Text

Back-door Lies and Promising under Coercion,  Mind (Oct. 14, 2020). SSRN | Full Text

Democratic Law — Tanner Lecture I, Draft version; essay forthcoming in Vol. 37 of The Tanner Lectures on Human Values. 

Common and Constitutional Law: A Democratic Legal Perspective, Tanner Lecture II, Draft version: essay forthcoming in vol. 37 of the Tanner Lectures on Human Values.

Deceptive Advertising and Taking Responsibility for Others, in Oxford Handbook of Food Ethics (edited by Tyler Doggett, Anne Barnhill and Mark Budolfson, Oxford Univ. Press, 2018). SSRN

The Moral Neglect of Negligence, in Oxford Studies in Political Philosophy(edited by David Sobel, Peter Vallentyne, and Steve Wall, Oxford Univ. Press, 2017). SSRN and on Pea Soup here: http://peasoup.us/2018/03/upcoming-discussion-moral-neglect-negligence-seana-valentine-shiffrin/

Enhancing Moral Relationships Through Strict Liability, 66 University of Toronto Law Review 353 (2016). SSRN

Bedrock, 129 Harvard Law Review Forum 242 (2016). SSRN

Remedial Clauses: The Overprivatization of Private Law, 67 Hastings Law Journal 407 (2016). Full Text | SSRN

Preserving the Valued or Preserving Valuing?, in Death and the Afterlife by Samuel Scheffler, pp. 143-58 (edited and introduced by Niko Kolodny, Oxford University Press, 2013). Full Text

Harm and Its Moral Significance, 18 Legal Theory 357-98 (2012). (Posted with permission from Cambridge University Press; Copyright Cambridge University Press.) Abstract

Are Contracts Promises?, Pre-publication version. Edited version appears in the Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Law (edited by Andrei Marmor, Routledge, 2012). Full Text

A Thinker-Based Approach to Freedom of Speech, 27 Constitutional Commentary 283-307 (2011). Full Text

Immoral, Conflicting and Redundant Promises, in Reasons and Recognition: Essays on the Philosophy of T.M. Scanlon (edited by R. Jay Wallace, Rahul Kumar, and Samuel Freeman, Oxford University Press, 2011). Full Text

Incentives, Motives and Talents, 38 Philosophy & Public Affairs 111-42 (2010).Abstract

Inducing Moral Deliberation: On the Occasional Virtues of Fog, 123 Harvard Law Review 1214-46 (2010). Full Text

The Story of West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette (with Vincent Blasi), in Constitutional Law Stories 2nd ed. (edited by Michael Dorf, Foundation Press, 2009). Reprinted in First Amendment Stories (edited by Richard W. Garnett and Andrew Koppelman, Foundation Press, 2012). (Posted with permission from Foundation Press.) Full Text

Could Breach of Contract be Immoral?, 107 Michigan Law Review 1551-68 (2009). Full Text

Promising, Intimate Relationships, and Conventionalism, 117 Philosophical Review 481-524 (2008). Full Text | SSRN

Intellectual Property, in A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy(edited by Robert Goodin, Philip Pettit, and Thomas Pogge, Blackwell, 2007).Full Text

The Divergence of Contract and Promise, 120 Harvard Law Review 708-53 (2007). Full Text

Are Credit Card Late Fees Unconstitutional?, 15 William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 457-500 (2006). Full Text | SSRN

What Is Really Wrong With Compelled Association?, 99 Northwestern University Law Review 839-88 (2005). Full Text

Race, Labor, and the Fair Equality of Opportunity Principle, 72 Fordham Law Review 1643-75 (2004). Full Text

Autonomy, Beneficence, and the Permanently Demented, in Ronald Dworkin and His Critics 195-217 (edited by Justine Burley, Blackwell Publishers, 2004).Full Text

Egalitarianism, Choice-Sensitivity, and Accommodation, in Reason and Value: Themes from the Work of Joseph Raz 270-302 (edited by Philip Pettit, et al, Oxford University Press, 2004). Full Text

Speech, Death, and Double Effect, 78 NYU Law Review 1135-85 (2003). Full Text | SSRN

Lockean Arguments for Private Intellectual Property, in New Essays in the Legal and Political Theory of Property 138-67 (edited by Stephen R. Munzer, Cambridge University Press, 2001). Full Text

Paternalism, Unconscionability Doctrine, & Accommodation, 29 Philosophy & Public Affairs 205-51 (2000). Reprinted in Philosophy of Law (edited by Joel Feinberg and Jules Coleman, Wadsworth/Thompson Learning, 2003, 2007). Full Text

Moral Overridingness and Moral Subjectivism, 109 Ethics 772-94 (1999). Full Text

Wrongful Life, Procreative Responsibility, and the Significance of Harm, 5 Legal Theory 117-148 (1999). Excerpted in Philosophy of Law (edited by Jules Coleman and Joel Feinberg, 2007). Full Text

Developments in the Law–DNA Evidence and the Criminal Defense, 108 Harvard Law Review 1557-82 (1995).

Moral Autonomy and Agent Centered Options, 51 Analysis 244-54 (1991).Full Text

Lectures, Replies and Remarks

A Worthy Object of Passion, 65 UCLA Law Review Discourse 254 (2016). Full Text

Must I Mean What You Think I Should Have Said?, 98 Virginia Law Review 159-76 (2012). Full Text

Reply to Critics, 97 Constitutional Commentary 417-38 (2011). Full Text

Methodology in Free Speech Theory, 97 Virginia Law Review 549-58 (2011).Full Text

Reparations for U.S. Slavery and Justice over Time, in Harming Future Persons(edited by David Wasserman and Melinda Roberts, Springer, 2009). Full Text

The Incentives Argument for Intellectual Property Protection, in Intellectual Property and Theories of Justice 94-105 (edited by A. Gosseries, A. Marciano & A. Strowel, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). Reprinted in IV Journal of Law, Philosophy, and Culture (2010). Full Text

Compelled Association, Morality & Market Dynamics, 41 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 317 (2007). Full Text

Caution about Character Ideals and Capital Punishment: A Reply to Sorell, 21 Criminal Justice Ethics 35-39 (2002). Full Text

Other

Protecting Minors and the First Amendment, 129(5) LA Daily Journal (June 1, 2016).

Book Review, 15 Harvard Woman’s Law Journal 295-303 (1992). Reviewing Justice and the Politics of Difference, by Iris Marion Young.

Law and Philosophy Program

Information for prospective and current graduate or law students interested in the Law and Philosophy Program is available at:http://www.law.ucla.edu/centers/interdisciplinary-studies/law-and-philosophy-program/about/.
All students, faculty and members of the public are welcome at the Program’s Legal Theory Workshop. Information is available at: https://www.law.ucla.edu/centers/interdisciplinary-studies/law-and-philosophy-program/events/legal-theory-workshop/