SLAVES, GLADIATORS, AND DEATH: KANTIAN LIBERALISM AND THE MORAL LIMITS OF CONSENT

ABSTRACTIrving Kristol invoked the example of voluntary gladiatorial contests to show that liberalism's commitment to personal autonomy cannot override majoritarian standards of morality. Liberalism cannot explain why voluntary gladiatorial contests should be banned, but liberals know that such contests should be banned. Thus, honest liberals must concede that majoritarian morality trumps consent. Arthur Ripstein argues that the consent in gladiatorial agreements contains a formal defect. According to Ripstein, because both gladiators sanction their own deaths, both reduce themselves to the status of mere things or slaves. On the Kantian view, slavery contracts undermine the personal sovereignty that binding contracts must presuppose, so Kantian liberals can reject gladiatorial contracts and still avoid legal moralism. I argue that while Kantian liberals have cogent internal reasons for rejecting slavery contracts, not all gruesome and deadly contests are matters of slavery. Thus, Kristol's challenge remains intact.