Argumentation and Discretionary Power

Abstract

This essay addresses the reasonableness of discretionary power, such as exercised by police, immigration officials, and teachers. Discretion is the power to interpret rules, to accept reasons given by individuals subjected to these rules, and to make judgments concerning their treatment. The essay articulates three faces of discretion, frames discretion as noumenal power, explicates the second-personal speech act structure of discretionary power, and concludes with a proposal for assessing the reasonableness of those encounters.