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32 Stan. L. Rev. 467 (1979-1980)
The Speluncean Explorers--Further Proceedings

handle is hein.journals/stflr32 and id is 485 raw text is: The Speluncean Explorers-Further Proceedings* Anthony D'Amatot Lon L. Fuller's The Case of the Speluncean Explorers is a classic in jurisprudence. Set in the Supreme Court of Newgarth in the year 4300 the case presents five judicial opinions which clash with each other and produce for the reader an exhilarating excursion into fun- damental theories of law and the state and the role of courts vis-A.-vis legislatures and executives. Though the issues articulated by Profes- sor Fuller in 1949 are timeless, the past thirty years in jurisprudential scholarship have produced at least one major new vantage point- the rights thesis as advanced by Professor Dworkin and others.2 Simply stated, the rights thesis holds that there is a right answer, and only one right answer, in every case. The litigants have a right to that and finally-to add one more shade of meaning to the com- prehensive term right-the answer thus arrived at is dictated by general requirements of justice. Since justice is a branch of morality, the right answer is not only correct but also right in a moral sense. My purpose here is to examine how the rights thesis would apply to the Speluncean Case, and to do so in the spirit of my former teacher's presentation. Therefore, let us imagine that, right after the decision in the Speluncean Case was handed down, the Chief Execu- tive of Newgarth constituted a Special Commission of three law professors at the University of Newgarth School of Law to present a recommendation on the question whether executive clemency should be extended to the convicted defendants.3 * 0 Anthony D'Amato, 1980. t Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law. 1. Fuller, The Case of the Sbe/uncean Erplorers, 62 HARV. L. REV. 616 (1949). 2. See R. DWORKIN, TAKING RIGHTS SERIOUSLY (1977); R. SARTORIUS, INDIVIDUAL CONDUCT AND SOCIAL NORMS 163-210 (1975); Jurisprudence Symposium, 11 GA. L. REV. 969-1424 (1977). See also D'Amato, Judicz;u/ Legirlation, 1 CARDOZO L. REV. 63 (1979). 3. Five members of the Speluncean Society-the four defendants and Roger Whetmore-left indications at the headquarters of the Society concerning the location of a cave they proposed to explore. Upon their failure to return, the Secretary of the Society organized a rescue party. The rescue party found that a landslide had blocked the only

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