Frederick Schauer (University of Virginia School of Law) has posted No More Vehicles in the Park on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
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In prior work, I have examined the memorable controversy about the fictional legal rule prohibiting vehicles in the park, which first appeared in the 1958 debate between Lon Fuller and H.L.A. Hart. That essay focused on the original version of the thought experiment as presented by Hart. In this essay, I examine a series of classic variations found in the work of other theorists, including "ambulance in the park," "tricycle in the park," "motorized wheelchair in the park," "radio-controlled toy car in the park," "tank memorial in the park," and "silent hovercraft in the park." Drawing on Daniel Dennett's critique of thought experiments as intuition pumps, this essay shows that many (if not all) of these variations are simply incapable of generating valuable insights about legal rules, legal interpretation, and the nature of legal language. I conclude by suggesting that the proliferation of vehicle-in-the-park thought experiments be terminated.
