Abstract

This dissertation argues that law can, within limits, promote benevolence. It suggests the creation of a "benevolence-conducive legal environment," consisting of a multitude of legal norms that enable, eliminate setbacks for, and elicit acts of, benevolence: A legal background which supports and encourages people's charitable inclinations. Rather than advocating the coercion of benevolent conduct by law, this dissertation argues that legal rules can promote benevolence by non-coercive means. It discusses several non-coercive methods by which law can promote benevolence, such as "declarative laws," creation of legal institutions and power-conferring laws through which people can do good, elimination of "economic disincentives" and "psychological disincentives" to do good, etc. It also looks closely at three subject matters---rescues, gifts and charitable corporations---and suggests ways in which the laws governing these fields can be a part of a benevolence-conducive legal environment