Understanding Jurisprudence An Introduction to Legal Theory

by Wacks, Raymond

• ISBN13: 9780199272587
• ISBN10: 0199272581
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-04-07
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Understanding Jurisprudence by Raymond Wacks adopts a novel approach to this challenging subject; It reveals the nature of legal theory with clarity, enthusiasm, and wit, without avoiding its complexities and subtleties. The author provides an illuminating guide to the central questions of legal theory. An experienced teacher of jurisprudence and distinguished writer in the field, his approach is stimulating, accessible, and even entertaining.

The concept of law lies at the heart of our social and political life. Jurisprudence explores the concept of law and its role in society. It elucidates its meaning and its relation to the universal questions of justice, rights, and morality. And it analyzes the nature and purpose of our legal system, and its practice by courts, lawyers, and judges.

Author Biography

Raymond Wacks is Emeritus Professor of Law and Legal Theory at the University of Hong Kong.
His major areas of interest are legal theory, and human rights, in particular the protection of privacy, on which he is a leading international authority. In March 1997 he was awarded a higher doctorate in law (LLD) by the University of London for his publications on privacy and legal theory.

Table of Contents

Preface	xv
List of Tables and Figures	xviii
Acknowledgements	xix
Introduction	1	(13)
An analgesic?	2	(2)
Reading	4	(1)
Why jurisprudence?	5	(2)
Descriptive and normative legal theory	7	(1)
Is eating people wrong?	8	(3)
The point of legal theory	11	(1)
Notes	12	(2)
Natural law	14	(28)
What is natural law?	15	(1)
The development of natural law philosophy	16	(4)
Natural law in political philosophy	20	(5)
Hobbes	21	(2)
Locke	23	(1)
Rousseau	24	(1)
The decline of natural law	25	(1)
The revival of natural law	26	(1)
Fuller's `inner morality of law'	27	(1)
John Finnis	28	(3)
Hard and soft natural law?	31	(2)
Moral realism	33	(2)
Critique	35	(1)
Questions	36	(2)
Further Reading	38	(1)
Notes	39	(3)
Classical legal positivism	42	(26)
What is legal positivism?	42	(4)
What positivism is not	44	(2)
Jeremy Bentham: the Luther of jurisprudence?	46	(5)
In search of determinacy	47	(2)
Judge & Co.	49	(1)
Codification	49	(2)
John Austin: naive empiricist?	51	(3)
Imperatives	52	(1)
Laws properly so called	52	(2)
Law and power	54	(1)
Bentham and Austin compared	54	(10)
Their general approaches	54	(2)
The definition of law	56	(1)
Commands	56	(4)
Sovereignty	60	(3)
Sanctions	63	(1)
Questions	64	(1)
Further Reading	65	(1)
Notes	66	(2)
Modern legal positivism	68	(52)
The foundations	68	(2)
Hard and soft positivism	70	(2)
H. L. A. Hart	72	(13)
Hart as legal positivist	73	(1)
`Minimum content of natural law'	73	(1)
Breaking with Austin and Bentham	74	(1)
Law and language	74	(1)
Law as a system of rules	75	(1)
Social rules	76	(1)
Secondary rules	77	(1)
The rule of recognition	78	(3)
The existence of a legal system	81	(1)
The `internal point of view'	82	(1)
The judicial function	83	(1)
`An essay in descriptive sociology'?	84	(1)
Critique	85	(1)
Hans Kelsen	85	(21)
Unadulterated law	87	(2)
A Hierarchy of norms	89	(1)
The Grundnorm	90	(4)
Validity, efficacy, and revolution	94	(4)
International law	98	(3)
Kelsen and Kant	101	(3)
Democracy and the rule of law	104	(1)
Critique	105	(1)
Joseph Raz	106	(5)
The `sources thesis'	106	(2)
Practical reason	108	(1)
Committed and detached statements	109	(1)
Critique	110	(1)
Questions	111	(2)
Further Reading	113	(2)
Notes	115	(5)
Law as interpretation	120	(30)
An overview	120	(2)
The assault on positivism	122	(13)
Principles and policies	124	(1)
Hercules and hard cases	125	(2)
One right answer	127	(1)
The semantic sting	127	(2)
The rights thesis	129	(2)
Law as literature	131	(1)
Law as integrity	132	(2)
Community	134	(1)
The assault on Dworkin	135	(10)
Questions	145	(1)
Further Reading	145	(1)
Notes	146	(4)
Law and morality	150	(25)
Morals	150	(6)
Natural law v positivism	151	(2)
Hart v Fuller	153	(3)
Judicial morality: a case study	156	(13)
Moral questions	156	(1)
Semantic questions	157	(3)
Public or private morality?	160	(2)
The judge's duty	162	(1)
The judge's choice	163	(3)
The judge's capitulation	166	(2)
The judge and the lawyer	168	(1)
Questions	169	(1)
Further Reading	170	(1)
Notes	171	(4)
Legal realism	175	(22)
What are realists realistic about?	175	(2)
American Realism	177	(7)
Oliver Wendell Holmes	179	(1)
Karl Llewellyn	180	(2)
Jerome Frank	182	(1)
The American Realist method	183	(1)
The Scandinavian Realists	184	(7)
Alf Ross	186	(2)
Karl Olivecrona	188	(2)
Critique	190	(1)
Realism and psychology	191	(1)
Questions	192	(1)
Further Reading	193	(1)
Notes	194	(3)
Law and social theory	197	(46)
What is a sociological perspective?	198	(1)
Roscoe Pound	199	(3)
Social interests and `jural postulates'	200	(1)
Critique of Pound	201	(1)
Eugen Ehrlich	202	(2)
Emile Durkheim	204	(4)
Law and social solidarity	205	(1)
The function of punishment	205	(2)
Critique of Durkheim	207	(1)
Max Weber	208	(10)
Weber's typology of law	208	(3)
Weber's theory of legitimate domination	211	(1)
Capitalism and law	212	(4)
Critique of Weber	216	(2)
Karl Marx	218	(11)
Historicism	218	(1)
Base and superstructure	219	(2)
Ideology	221	(1)
Goodbye to law?	222	(1)
Legal fetishism	223	(1)
Conflict or consensus?	224	(5)
Michele Foucault	229	(3)
Power	230	(1)
The law	231	(1)
Critique	231	(1)
Jurgen Habermas	232	(2)
The modern state	232	(1)
The law	233	(1)
Critique	233	(1)
Autopoiesis	234	(1)
Whither the sociology of law?	235	(1)
Questions	235	(1)
Further Reading	236	(2)
Notes	238	(5)
Justice	243	(25)
Utilitarianism	244	(5)
Consequences	246	(1)
Preferences	246	(1)
Critique of utilitarianism	247	(2)
The economic analysis of law	249	(4)
Robert Nozick	253	(3)
John Rawls	256	(8)
The rejection of utilitarianism	257	(1)
Social contractarianism	257	(1)
The original position	258	(1)
The two principles of justice	259	(2)
Political liberalism	261	(1)
Critique of Rawls	262	(2)
Questions	264	(1)
Further Reading	265	(1)
Notes	266	(2)
Rights	268	(41)
What is a right?	268	(4)
Theories of rights	272	(4)
Right-based theories	273	(3)
Human rights	276	(6)
Communitarianism	277	(3)
Relativism	280	(1)
Utilitarianism	280	(1)
Socialism	281	(1)
Legal positivism	281	(1)
Critical theory	282	(1)
The future of human rights	282	(1)
Animal rights	283	(9)
Subjectivism and intuitionism	284	(1)
Utilitarianism	284	(1)
Can animals have rights?	285	(4)
Social contractarianism	289	(1)
Intrinsic worth	289	(1)
The rights of animals	290	(2)
Freedom of expression: a case study	292	(7)
Individual or community?	293	(1)
Speaker or audience?	293	(1)
The argument from truth	294	(1)
Self-government	295	(1)
Press freedom	296	(1)
The First Amendment	297	(1)
Speech and action	298	(1)
Balancing	298	(1)
Questions	299	(2)
Further Reading	301	(2)
Notes	303	(6)
Feminist and critical race theory	309	(23)
Origins of feminism	310	(2)
Legal feminisms	312	(7)
Liberal feminism	312	(2)
Radical feminism	314	(2)
Postmodern feminism	316	(1)
Difference feminism	317	(2)
Other feminisms	319	(1)
Critique	319	(2)
Critical Race Theory	321	(4)
CRT and feminist theory	323	(2)
CRT and postmodernism	325	(1)
Questions	325	(1)
Further Reading	326	(2)
Notes	328	(4)
Critical legal theory	332	(23)
Critical Legal Studies	333	(6)
Trashing CLS?	337	(2)
Postmodern legal theory	339	(9)
What is it?	339	(2)
The death of the subject	341	(1)
Jacques Lacan	342	(1)
Jacques Derrida	342	(2)
Foucault and Habermas	344	(1)
The postmodern agenda	345	(1)
Language	345	(1)
Critical theory and individual rights	346	(1)
Critique	347	(1)
Questions	348	(1)
Further Reading	349	(2)
Notes	351	(4)
Glossary	355	(4)
Index	359