The Second Paradox of Blackmail

@article{Block2000TheSP,
  title={The Second Paradox of Blackmail},
  author={Walter E. Block and N. Stephan Kinsella and Hans Hermann Hoppe},
  journal={Business Ethics Quarterly},
  year={2000},
  volume={10},
  pages={593 - 622}
}
Abstract: One so-called paradox of blackmail concerns the fact that “two legal whites together make a black.” That is, it is licit to threaten to reveal a person’s secret, and it is separately lawful to ask him for money; but when both are undertaken at once, together, this act is called blackmail and is prohibited. A second so-called paradox is that if the blackmailer initiates the act, this is seen by jurists as blackmail and illicit, while if the blackmailee (the person blackmailed… 
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15 Citations
Background Citations
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15 Citations

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References

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. The author questions himself about what is known as “the paradox of blackmail,” that is, the fact that blackmail is the result of the combination of two ways of behaving which are often both lawful…
The Crime of Blackmail: A Libertarian Critique
There is something deeply paradoxical about laws that criminalize blackmail. How is it that, as Glanville Williams put it, "two things that taken separately are moral and legal whites together make a…
Truth and consequences: the force of blackmail's central case
Blackmail commentary continues to proliferate. One purpose of this paper is to show what we agree on. Its primary tool will be to define what I call the "central case" of blackmail literature, and to…
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I maintain that this argument fails, and that blackmail is illicit because it harms the victim by extorting money from him. As an example of blackmail, Owens gives a paradigm which it may be helpful…
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If people could legally blackmail criminals by threatening to reveal their criminal activity unless paid a fee, would we have less crime? This Article suggests that we might, and it explores the…
‘Attempted Murder of the Soul’: Blackmail, Privacy and Secrets
The power of a secret rests with its potential revelation. Blackmail, which threatens guilt with shame by the revelation of a secret, provides an axis in the relationship between information and…
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This article proposes a radically new solution to the so-called paradox of blackmail -- i.e., the puzzle that it should ever be criminal to threaten what it would be lawful to do. After reviewing and…
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The struggle to understand blackmail is a struggle for the soul of the criminal law. Is the criminal law efficiency-based or moralitybased? Is it based on harm or exploitation? What constitutes…
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There is no right to blackmail. So says the law and so say most moral observers. A few libertarian voices have been raised in defence of blackmail (e.g. Mack) but such a defence is liable to be…
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In this Article, Professor Boyle undertakes an analysis of the law's treatment of information across four apparently disparate realms: copyright, genetic information, blackmail, and insider trading.…
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