Philosophy of Law The Fundamentals

by Murphy, Mark C.

• ISBN13: 9781405129602
• ISBN10: 1405129603
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781118008102
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-08-11
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

The Philosophy of Law is a broad-reaching text that guides readers through the basic analytical and normative issues in the field, highlighting key historical and contemporary thinkers and offering a unified treatment of the various issues in the philosophy of law. Enlivened with numerous, everyday examples to illustrate various concepts of law. Employs the idea of three central commonplaces about law - that law is a social matter, that law is authoritative, and that law is for the common good - to organize seemingly disparate topics and to bring rival views into contention with each other. The first volume in the Fundamentals of Philosophy series, in which leading philosophers explore the fundamental issues and core problems in the major sub-disciplines of philosophy.

Author Biography

Mark C. Murphy is Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University, where he works in moral, political, and legal philosophy. He is the author of Natural Law and Practical Rationality (2001), An Essay on Divine Authority (2002), and Natural Law in Jurisprudence and Politics (2006), and the editor of Alasdair MacIntyre (2003).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	1	(13)
0.1 Philosophy, the Familiar, and the Unfamiliar	1	(3)
0.2 What Are Our Commonplaces About Law?	4	(7)
0.3 The Course of Our Inquiry	11	(2)
For Further Reading	13	(1)
Chapter 1: Analytical Fundamentals: The Concept of Law	14	(35)
1.1 The Question, and its Importance	14	(3)
1.2 Basic Austinianism	17	(8)
1.3 Positivist Lessons	25	(1)
1.4 Hartian Positivism	26	(6)
1.5 Interlude: Hard and Soft Positivisms	32	(3)
1.6 Natural Law Theory	35	(8)
1.7 A Suggested Resolution	43	(2)
For Further Reading	45	(4)
Chapter 2: Normative Fundamentals: The Basic Roles of Paradigmatic Legal Systems	49	(32)
2.1 What Are the Basic Roles of Paradigmatic Legal Systems?	49	(4)
2.2 The Role of Subject	53	(10)
2.3 The Role of Legislator	63	(6)
2.4 The Role of Judge	69	(10)
For Further Reading	79	(2)
Chapter 3: The Aims of Law	81	(31)
3.1 The Aims of Law and the Common Good	81	(2)
3.2 The Harm-to-others Principle	83	(5)
3.3 Challenges to the Harm-to-others Principle	88	(10)
3.4 Morals Legislation	98	(11)
For Further Reading	109	(3)
Chapter 4: The Nature and Aims of the Criminal Law	112	(34)
4.1 Types of Legal Norms	112	(1)
4.2 Crime and Punishment	113	(3)
4.1 Two Normative Theories of Punishment	116
4.4 justification win Excuse	112	(30)
For Further Reading	142	(4)
Chapter 5: The Nature and Aims of Tort Law	146	(37)
5.1 Torts and Crimes	146	(1)
5.2 Torts and Damages	146	(2)
5.3 Economic and Justice Accounts of Negligence Torts	148	(7)
5.4 Elements of the Negligence Tort	155	(15)
5.5 Damages	170	(5)
5.6 Intentional Torts and Torts of Strict Liability	175	(4)
For Further Reading	179	(4)
Chapter 6: Challenging the Law	183	(27)
6.1 Putting Legal Roles to the Question	183	(1)
6.2 Against the Role of Subject: Philosophical Anarchism	184	(8)
6.3 Against the Role of Legislator: Marxism, Feminist Legal Theory, Critical Race Theory	192	(6)
6.4 Against the Role of Judge: American Legal Realism, Critical Legal Studies	198	(8)
For Further Reading	206	(4)
Index	210