17 - Exclusionary Rules

Summary

Larry Alexander has observed that, despite the dependence of effective law on rules, there will always be a “gap” between what a rule-making authority should tell its subjects to do and what those subjects rationally can do. One consequence of this gap is to cast doubt on the concept of exclusionary reasons for action. In this essay, I examine theories of extended practical rationality that might be invoked to solve the problem of the gap and make sense of exclusionary reasons. Ultimately, I conclude that these theories succeed only by endorsing a form of epistemic irrationality, and therefore cannot resolve the problem of the gap.