CASE Library
Explore The Issues that Matter.
We excitedly invite you to browse, search, and explore our newly redesigned library of over 300 case studies which render some of the most complex and controversial moral and political issues of our time. These cases were formerly used for official NHSEB competitions at the Regional, Divisional, and National Championship levels. They are freely available for public use under Creative Commons licenses.
The NHSEB Case Library is an excellent tool for competitive preparation, internal or intramural competition, or beyond the context of the Ethics Bowl activity completely—as a classroom resource for Grades 9-12 and beyond.
Featured Cases
NAVIGATING THE LIBRARY
NHSEB’s Case Library is now fully browsable by individual case, or by Case Set—using the filters below. Or, if you already know a bit about what you’re looking for, the entire library of over 300 Ethics Bowl cases is newly indexed, referenced, and searchable by title, topic, keyword, year, and category. Each individual case entry contains the full text of the case and discussion questions as they originally appeared for competitive use, all references assembled in hyperlinked footnotes, and additional contextual resources curated by NHSEB HQ.
CASE SET COLLECTION
FIND AN ETHICS BOWL CASE
ATTRIBUTION AND CITATION
All National High School Ethics Bowl cases are the intellectual property of the Parr Center for Ethics, and all are freely available for public use under Creative Commons licenses once retired from use in NHSEB competitions. This library represents thousands of hours of work from our Contributing Authors, Editors, and others. Please do not reproduce NHSEB cases or sets—in part or in whole—without attribution, or modify the text of individual cases or sets. If you reproduce or make reference to NHSEB cases from this library (e.g., in classroom materials, academic papers, etc.), please attribute and/or cite those materials:
National High School Ethics Bowl (Ed.), <YEAR>. “<Case Title>.” National High School Ethics Bowl Case Library. UNC Parr Center for Ethics: Chapel Hill, NC. http://nhseb.org/case-library
Browse The Library
Dining Out During a Pandemic
A pastime of Megan and Andy's before the COVID-19 pandemic was to explore new restaurants. When COVID hit, and the government shut down all non-essential businesses, they were unable to do this. When restrictions started lifting, Megan and Andy continued to explore while following safety precautions. Megan was worried that what they were doing was too risky, putting the workers and their families in danger. Andy assured her that what they were doing was ok: with so many unemployed, it was good that people were going back to work and to support the businesses that did not permanently close.
(Un)Charitable Donations
Mary had leftover money in her budget for the month, so she decided to donate it to charity. She decided that Kiva, a charity that offers microloans to women entrepreneurs, was her charity of choice. When she told her friend Sam, he warned her that microloans can cause more harm than good, and encouraged her to give her money to GiveDirectly, a charity that gives money to the poor with no conditions on how to use it.
China’s Social Credit System
On June 14, 2014, China’s State Council announced a plan to establish a social credit system, which would assign “social credit scores” to citizens based on their behavior. Chinese State Council say being rewarded for good behavior will make citizens want to be better, but critics view this as an invasion of privacy and personal freedom. How can a community balance its interest in encouraging its members to engage in socially desirable behaviors with community membersâ interests in individual privacy and liberty?