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Historically, laws and policies to criminalize drug use or possession were rooted in explicit racism, and they continue to wreak havoc on certain racialized communities. We are a group of bioethicists, drug experts, legal scholars, criminal justice researchers, sociologists, psychologists, and other allied professionals who have come together in support of a policy proposal that is evidence-based and ethically recommended. We call for the immediate decriminalization of all so-called recreational drugs and, ultimately, for their timely and appropriate legal regulation. We also call for criminal convictions for nonviolent offenses pertaining to the use or possession of small quantities of such drugs to be expunged, and for those currently serving time for these offenses to be released. In effect, we call for an end to the "war on drugs."

Masteroppgave JUS399 MAJUR-2 MAJUR

Pedophilia is bad. But how bad is it? And in what ways, and for what reasons, is it bad? This is a thorny issue, and sadly, one seldom discussed by ethicists. In this paper it is argued that pedophilia is bad only because, and only to the extent that, it causes harm to children, and that pedophilia itself, as well as pedophilic expressions and practices that do not cause harm to children, are morally all right. It is further argued that the aim of our social and legal treatment of pedophilia should be to minimize harm to children, and that current practice is often counterproductive in this respect.

Denne oppgaven er en idéhistorisk undersøkelse av i hvilken grad og på hvilke måter Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835) øvet innflytelse på John Stuart Mill (1806-1873). Oppgavens tar for seg Humboldts verk Ideen zu einem Versuch, die Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staats zu bestimmen (1793), det eneste av Humboldts verker det er kjent at Mill leste, og Mills On Liberty (1859), det av Mills verker som er tydeligst influert av Humboldt. Tesen det argumenteres for er at Humboldts innflytelse på Mill er langt sterkere enn hva som ofte er antatt, og at Humboldt var viktig både for at Mill valgte å skrive On Liberty, for Mills utforming av verket og for hovedargumentet Mill presenterer om forholdet mellom politisk frihet og menneskelig utvikling. Hensikten med oppgaven er å kaste lys over en lite utforsket del av Mills intellektuelle progresjon og å vise at Humboldt fortjener en mer sentral plass i den politiske idéhistorien enn hva han ofte er viet. Oppgaven er innledet av en diskusjon om de metodiske forutsetningene idéhistoriske innflytelsesstudier.