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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