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
REGIONAL CASE SETS
2023-2024 | 2022-2023 | 2021-2022 | 2020-2021 | 2019-2020 | 2018-2019
2017-2018 | 2016-2017 | 2015-2016 | 2014-2015 | 2013-2014 | 2012-2013
National CASE SETS
2023-2024 | 2022-2023 | 2021-2022 | 2020-2021 | 2019-2020 | 2018-2019
2017-2018 | 2016-2017 | 2015-2016 | 2014-2015 | 2013-2014 | 2012-2013
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
Self-Interested Voting
Fang is considered a wealthy professional making about 130K a year. It is election day and she still cannot decide on who to vote for. Governor Date plans to implement a tax increase on wealthy civilians, as well as make healthcare more accessible for everyone. Senator Full plans to make financials easier on wealthy civilians, by decreasing tax on them. Personally, Fang benefits more from Full, but she knows generally and morally she should vote for Date. Should Fang vote on what would benefit her more or what would benefit most of America?
To Forgive or Not to Forgive?
The student debt crisis is steadily increasing by the year. Candidates like Bernie Sanders promise to totally delete all debt, while some promise to severely decrease it. Despite how good this sounds, there are a lot of critics surrounding this. Some say it's not fair for others who have handled their financials in a way where they need no loans. Would this policy be unfair to those who went about things differently? Should this policy be accepted to strengthen the middle class, therefore strengthing the economy since they'd be able to actively participate?
Forgiving Political Sex Scandals
Given that several politicians involved in sex scandals have made a political comeback, do politicians need to have good moral character? Is forgiveness of sexual indiscretion a demonstration of social progress or an erosion of ethics and values?