Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2001
Abstract
Can two individuals, each of whom needs a certain resource for his survival, have equal and conflicting rights to that resource? If so, is each entitled to try to exclude the other from its use? An old chestnut of moral and legal philosophy raises the problem. Following a shipwreck, two men converge simultaneously on a plank floating in the sea. There is no other plank available and no immediate hope of rescue. Unfortunately the plank can support only one; it sinks if two try to cling to it. Is it permissible for each to attempt to secure his own survival by pushing the other off the plank?
Keywords
Legal Ethics, Legal Philosophy, Moral and Political Philosophy, Philosophy, Human Rights Law
Publication Title
Legal Theory
Repository Citation
Finkelstein, Claire Oakes, "Two Men on a Plank" (2001). All Faculty Scholarship. 1002.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S1352325201073049
Included in
Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, Human Rights Law Commons, Jurisprudence Commons, Law and Society Commons, Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons
Publication Citation
7 Legal Theory 279 (2001).