Leo Katz is an often brilliant, always iconoclastic, thinker who specializes in the paradoxes at the intersection of law and moral and social theory. His latest work answers the question of Why the Law Is So Perverse.

Katz focuses on four fundamental features of our legal system, all of which seem to not make sense on some level and to demand explanation. First, legal decisions are essentially made in an either/or fashion—guilty or not guilty, liable or not liable, either it’s a contract or it’s not—but reality is rarely as clear-cut. Why aren’t there any in-between verdicts? Second, the law is full of loopholes. No one seems to like them, but somehow they cannot be made to disappear. Why? Third, legal systems are loath to punish certain kinds of highly immoral conduct while prosecuting other far less pernicious behaviors. What makes a villainy a felony? Finally, why does the law often prohibit what are sometimes called win-win transactions, such as organ sales or surrogacy contracts? Katz explains all these perversions and more, and his answers—counterintuitive and surprising—will make readers see the law in a whole new light.

Katz’s trademark combination of playfulness and seriousness led The New York Times Book Review to call his first book “a fascinating romp through the philosophical side of the law.” Why the Law Is So Perverse will not disappoint.

Leo Katz is the Frank Carano Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He is the author of Bad Acts and Guilty Minds: Conundrums of the Criminal Law and Ill-Gotten Gains: Evasion, Blackmail, Fraud, and Kindred Puzzles of the Law, both published by the University of Chicago Press.