The Duty to Accept Restrictions for the Sake of Others

Abstract This chapter examines the thought that the state can justifiably impose targeted restrictions on the liberty of certain people based on their having a duty to submit to those restrictions. Section 17.1 argues that people might have such a duty if they cannot help threatening the welfare of others if they behave in certain ways, such as mingling with them while carrying a contagious disease. The duty not to mingle in such a case can be enforced with targeted restrictions, such as a quarantine. Section 17.2 argues that people might also have a duty to accept restrictions on their liberty if others reasonably fear them. In this case, those who accept this duty, while simultaneously benefiting from the presumption of law abidingness, are making a sacrifice for the sake of others, and that limits the scope of the targeted restrictions that can be imposed under this type of justification.