Despite the attention equality before the law has received, both laudatory and critical, peculiarly little has been done to precisely define it. The first ambition of this paper is to remedy this, by exploring the various ways in which a principle of equality before the law can be understood and suggest a concise definition. With a clearer understanding of the principle in hand we are better equipped to assess traditional critique of the principle. Doing so is the second ambition of this paper. I will argue that traditional criticisms are unpersuasive, but that there is a different, powerful argument against equality before the law. The third ambition of the paper is to argue that there is a sense, overlooked by both proponents and critics, in which the principle still captures something important, albeit at the cost of shifting from intrinsic to instrumental value.

中文翻译：

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概念、原则和规范——重新考虑法律之前的平等

尽管法律面前的平等受到了关注，无论是赞美的还是批评的，但对它的精确定义却很少做。本文的首要目标是通过探索可以理解法律面前人人平等原则并提出简明定义的各种方式来解决这一问题。对手头的原则有了更清晰的理解，我们就能更好地评估对该原则的传统批评。这样做是本文的第二个目标。我会争辩说，传统的批评没有说服力，但有一个不同的、强有力的论据反对法律面前人人平等。这篇论文的第三个目标是论证存在一种被支持者和批评者都忽视的意义，其中该原则仍然抓住了一些重要的东西，