1st Edition
The Concept of Law from a Transnational Perspective
This book brings together the fruits of different traditions in legal philosophy and draws on them to develop a systematic thesis on the concept of law. The work uses a legal model to explore the underlying question of how the current phenomena of transnational law are best understood, in combination with an examination of the traditions of Jürgen Habermas's critical theory and H.L.A. Hart's analytic jurisprudence. This leads the author to conclude that the key to a fruitful dialogue and comprehensive understanding is to appreciate that the concept of law is not state-cantered and must reflect relationships to other legal systems.
Biography
Detlef von Daniels is a Postdoctoral Fellow, at the Humanities Center at Harvard, USA. He has held positions as Visiting Scholar in the Department of Philosophy of Law & Social Philosophy, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, and Lecturer and Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan.
'This book is a bold attempt to move analytical legal philosophy to transnational levels and to take concepts of non-state law seriously. It is thoughtful, provocative and accessible and deserves the attention of anyone interested in the implications of globalization for legal theory.' William Twining, University College London, UK 'This book is the first of its kind and an important contribution to the growing field of the philosophy of international law. Not only does it provide a long-overdue analytical discussion of the jurisprudential questions raised by the development of transnational and international law. But it does so by bridging the Hartian and Habermasian traditions in legal philosophy and making the most of their insights to provide a systematic account of the concept of law that can accommodate both state and non-state law and explain legal pluralism.' Samantha Besson, University of Fribourg, Switzerland 'In taking seriously the need for legal philosophy to encompass law as a complex domestic and transnational phenomenon, it will definitely become a reference in the field. The book provides both a substantive discussion of the main jurisprudential difficulties raised by the transnationalisation of law and a methodological proposal as to how to conceive ’general jurisprudence’ or general ’legal theory’ in circumstances of transnational law.' Transnational Legal Theory 'The Concept of Law from a Transnational Perspective is an important addition to contemporary legal debates. Attentive to the jurisprudential traditions of the past, von Daniels succeeds in placing legal and normative orders in a wider frame. His theory offers tantalizing possibilities for the future.' International & Comparative Law Quarterly
