37th Selected Links

Happy weekend! Here are some links to things I've been reading or watching that you might also enjoy:

1. Two separate issues that arose during the week inspired me to revisit the Hart-Fuller debate on law and morality. First, the Supreme Court of the United States refused to strike down Texas law SB 8. Second, international criticism of Australia's pandemic restrictions, which have themselves been challenged in the High Court of Australia, went viral. The famous Hart-Fuller debate played out on the pages of the Harvard Law Reviewin 1958. In the opening salvo ('Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals'), H. L. A. Hart stood for a form of legal positivism, arguing that “there is no necessary connection between law and morals or law as it is and law as it ought to be.” Lon Fuller's naturalist reply ('Positivism and Fidelity to Law — A Reply to Professor Hart') held that law and morality are inseparable.

2. If you're a homesick Sydneysider or just a curious cosmopolitan, photographer and former ABC executive Tim Ritchie in my opinion takes the best Sydney-flaneuring photos on the planet. Some of my favourites are below, and you can see more here or follow him on Twitter here.

3. 'Magic and empiricism in early Chinese rainmaking', a new pre-print by Ze Hong, Edward Slingerland and former guest of the podcast Joe Henrich.

4. 'What explains the decline in r*? Rising income inequality versus demographic shifts' a recent paper prepared for the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, by Atif Mian, Ludwig Straub and another former guest of the podcast Amir Sufi.

5. 'The Impact of Community Masking on COVID-19: A Cluster-Randomized Trial in Bangladesh', a mammoth new RCT funded by GiveWell, finding that masks work.

6.'When Fake Growth Leads to Real Violence | Part 2', a new YouTube video popularising the ideas of former guest of the podcast (yes, I know, now I sound like I'm name-dropping) Eric Weinstein. View it for entertainment and food for thought, not for resolving complex questions of causality.

Have a great weekend,  


Joe