A Life of H. L. A. Hart The Nightmare and the Noble Dream

by Lacey, Nicola

• ISBN13: 9780199202775
• ISBN10: 019920277X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-06-22
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

To generations of lawyers, H. L. A. Hart is known as the twentieth century's greatest legal philosopher. Whilst his scholarship revolutionized the study of law, as a social commentator he gave intellectual impetus to the liberalizing of society in the 1960s. But behind his public success, Hart struggled with demons. His Jewish background, ambivalent sexuality, and unconventional marriage all contributed to a profound insecurity; allegations of espionage, though immediately quashed, nearly destroyed him. Nicola Lacey's biography explores the forces that shaped an extraordinary life. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Nicola Lacey is Professor of Criminal Law and Legal Theory at the London School of Economics and Adjunct Professor of Social and Political Theory at the Research School of Social Sciences of the Australian National University. She is a Fellow of the British Academy.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS	ix
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS	xv
BIOGRAPHER'S NOTE ON APPROACH AND SOURCES	xvii
Introduction: An Outsider on the Inside	1	(10)
Part I. NORTH AND SOUTH
1. Harrogate, Cheltenham, Bradford	11	(11)
2. An Oxford Scholar	22	(18)
3. Success Snatched from Defeat: London and the Bar	40	(21)
Part II. CHANGE AND CONTINUITY
4. Jenifer	61	(22)
5. From the Inns of Court to Military Intelligence: MI5, Marriage, and Fatherhood	83	(29)
6. Oxford from the Other Side of the Fence	112	(43)
Part III. THE GOLDEN AGE
7. Selling Philosophy to the Lawyers: The Chair of Jurisprudence	155	(24)
8. American Jurisprudence through English Eyes: Harvard 1956-7	179	(30)
9. Law in the Perspective of Philosophy: Causation in the Law, The Concept of Law	209	(34)
10. West and East, California and Israel: Law, Liberty, and Morality; Kelsen Visited; The Morality of the Criminal Law	243	(29)
11. Discipline, Punishment, and Responsibility	272	(25)
Part IV: AFTER THE CHAIR
12. Old Turks and Young Fogeys: Bentham and Brasenose	297	(31)
13. The Nightmare and the Noble Dream	328	(37)
NOTES	365	(29)
BIBLIOGRAPHY	394	(10)
H.L.A. Hart	394	(4)
Other Authors	398	(5)
Interviews	403	(1)
BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS OF FIGURES APPEARING IN THE BOOK	404	(7)
INDEX	411