Episode 10: Good night!

In this episode: In this last episode of Season 1, legal and political theorist Jon Goldberg-Hiller joins Cressida and Joshua to talk about what happens to the law at night. Is there a right to sleep? And are we legally responsible for things we do while we’re asleep? (22:04). Jon explains the history of ideas about sleeping kings, and why some law-makers manage the representation of their sleep. Or, “if it’s 3am in the White House, who do you want answering the phone?” (44:55). We end season 1 by overthinking insomnia (1:03:46). Good night!

Mentioned in this episode: Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller, Law By Night (2023); René Descartes, Meditations (1638, full text); judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada in R v. Parks (1992); judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in Hatton and others v. The United Kingdom (2003); judgment of the Supreme Court of India in the Ramlila Maidan incident (2012); John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690, full text); Daniel Dennett’s famous essay “Where Am I?” about personal identity; Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign ad video; Ernst Kantorowicz, The King’s Two Bodies (1957).

Transcript coming soon…