1st Edition

The Methodology of Legal Theory Volume I

By Michael Giudice, Wil Waluchow Copyright 2010

    The last decade has witnessed a particularly intensive debate over methodological issues in legal theory. The publication of Julie Dickson's Evaluation and Legal Theory (2001) was significant, as were collective returns to H.L.A. Hart's 'Postscript' to The Concept of Law. While influential articles have been written in disparate journals, no single collection of the most important papers exists. This volume - the first in a three volume series - aims not only to fill that gap but also propose a systematic agenda for future work. The editors have selected articles written by leading legal theorists, including, among others, Leslie Green, Brian Leiter, Joseph Raz, Ronald Dworkin, and William Twining, and organized under four broad categories: 1) problems and purposes of legal theory; 2) the role of epistemology and semantics in theorising about the nature of law; 3) the relation between morality and legal theory; and 4) the scope of phenomena a general jurisprudence ought to address.

    Contents: Introduction; Part I Problems and Aims: What is jurisprudence about? Theories, definitions, concepts, or conceptions of law?, Michael D. Bayles; General jurisprudence: a 25th anniversary essay, Leslie Green; Leaving the Hart-Dworkin debate, Keith Culver; The methodology of jurisprudence: 30 years off the point, Andrew Halpin; Ways of understanding diversity among theories of law, Michael Giudice. Part II Issues of Semantics and Epistemology: Two views of the nature of the theory of law: a partial comparison, Joseph Raz; Jurisprudence and necessity, Danny Priel; Jurisprudence as practical philosophy, Gerald J. Postema; Beyond the Hart/Dworkin debate: the methodology problem in jurisprudence, Brian Leiter. Part III Perspectives on Morality in the Theory of Law: Hart's postscript and the character of political philosophy, Ronald Dworkin; Law and what I truly should decide, John Finnis; Concepts of law, Liam Murphy; Methodology in jurisprudence: a critical survey, Julie Dickson. Part IV Issues of Scope and Concepts: Transnational communities and the concept of law, Roger Cotterrell; Have concepts, will travel: analytical jurisprudence in a global context, William Twining; Socio-legal positivism and a general jurisprudence, Brian Z. Tamanaha; Doin' the transsystemic: legal systems and legal traditions, H. Patrick Glenn; Name index.

    Biography

    Michael Giudice, York University, Canada, Wil Waluchow, McMaster University, Canada and Maksymilian Del Mar is Reader in Legal Theory at Queen Mary University of London, UK.