Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2000
Abstract
The interdependence of law and morality, the circular influences of one on the other, puts us in a position to fear what we want the law to do. We embrace a legal system that promotes morality, that makes better citizens of us, but we worry that the law will cross an elusive line and infringe on individual rights. For this reason we are careful, and should remain so, in limiting enforcement of laws to reflect only those values that emerge from the overall agreement of the community where they will be enforced.
In this paper, I have focused primarily on Good Samaritan laws in the context of the criminal law, in part because of my own interest and experience, but also because there has been more attention paid to the issue in the criminal law context. Nonetheless, there is still a separate question of whether such a duty should be required under tort law.
Automated Citation
Kathleen M. Ridolfi,
Law, Ethics, and the Good Samaritan: Should There be a Duty to Rescue?
, 40 Santa Clara L. Rev. 957
(2000),
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/facpubs/114