The Philosophy of Law: A Very Short Introduction
Raymond Wacks
Language: English
Pages: 144
ISBN: 0192806912
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
This lively and accessible introduction to the social, moral, and cultural foundations of law takes a broad scope-- spanning philosophy, law, politics, and economics, and discussing a range of topics including women's rights, racism, the environment, and recent international issues such as the war in Iraq and the treatment of terror suspects. Revealing the intriguing and challenging nature of legal philosophy with clarity and enthusiasm, Raymond Wacks explores the notion of law and its role in our lives. Referring to key thinkers from the classical world to the modern, he looks at the central questions behind legal theory that have always fascinated lawyers and philosophers, as well as anyone who ever wondered about law's relation to justice, morality, and democracy.
About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.
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Grenada. Law as social fact: Joseph Raz Raz argues, however, that the law is autonomous: we can identify its content without recourse to morality. Legal reasoning, on the other hand, is not autonomous; it is an inevitable, and desirable, feature of judicial reasoning. For Raz, the existence and content of every law may be determined by a factual enquiry about conventions, institutions, and the intentions of participants in the legal system. The answer to the question ‘what is law?’ is always a.
Of the rule of law, reformers lament its shortcomings, and cynics question its professed equivalence with justice. Yet all recognize the law as a vehicle for social change. And few doubt the central role of law in our social, political, moral, and economic life. But what is this thing called law? Does it consist of a set of universal moral principles in accordance with nature (see Chapter 1)? Or is it simply a collection of largely man-made, valid rules, commands, or norms (Chapter 2)? Does the.
Affairs in which goods and other resources are in the hands of those people who value them most; that is to say, those who are willing and able to pay more to have them. Philosophy of Law To take a simple example, suppose you buy my copy of this book for $5. The highest price you were willing to pay was $10. Your wealth has therefore been increased by $5. Similarly, Posner argues, society maximizes its wealth when all its resources are distributed in such a way that the sum of everyone’s.
Interpretation and understanding in the personal experience of individuals. assumptions, and ideas of the analytical Anglo-American philosophical tradition. Philosophy of Law Postmodernist accounts of society, and the role of law within it, disclose a disillusionment with formalism, essentialism, statism, utopianism, and even democracy. Nor does the scepticism end here. Critical theory, whether aesthetic or ethical, seeks to subvert ‘foundational’ ideas of truth. It expresses an impatience.
Recognition 30–2 secondary rules 30–2 social rules 29 Philosophy of Law Weber criticisms 81 economic forces 79–80 importance 78 legitimate domination 80–1 typology of law 80–1 Soft positivism hard positivism distinguished 108–9 Sovereignty Austin and Bentham compared 25 Habermas social theory 89 Durkheim’s social theory 77–8 Kelsen 32 Secondary rules 30–2 Smart, C. 103–4 Social contractarianism fundamental principles 70 original choices 70–3 Rawls’ theory of justice 67–74 revision and.