The Cambridge Companion to the Philosophy of Law (Cambridge Companions to Law)

What is the nature of law as a form of social order? What bearing do values like justice, human rights, and the rule of law have on law? Which values should law serve, and what limits must it respect in serving them? Are we always morally bound to obey the law? What are the philosophical problems that arise in specific areas of law, from criminal and tort law to contract law and public international law? The book provides an accessible, comprehensive, and high quality introduction to the major themes of legal philosophy written by a stellar international cast of contributors, including John Finnis, Martha Nussbaum, Fred Schauer, Onora O'Neill and Antony Duff. The volume is an exceptional teaching tool that provides a critical introduction to cutting-edge work in the philosophy of law. "Reflection on the law gives rise to many methodological questions. Some relate to legal doctrines - how best to understand, rationalise and potentially justify areas such as contract law or administrative law or criminal procedure. This chapter, by contrast, will focus on the question of how to understand 'law in general', or the 'nature of law'. Law in this sense is standardly regarded as a particular type of social practice with two dimensions: an institutional dimension involving bodies such as legislatures and courts, and a normative dimension involving the standards and other considerations created and applied by those bodies ('the law'). How should we go about making sense of this social practice? In what way should it be approached? There are three prominent features of our contemporary understanding of law that feed into the methodological debate: (a) the idea that law is a general type of social practice, found in different cultures at different times; (b) the idea that law is a social construction, whose existence depends upon the combined beliefs and actions of a variety of social actors; and (c) the idea that law is a hermeneutic practice, that is, a practice that we self-consciously understand as a distinctive sort of social practice, and in terms of which we understand and structure features of our social world"-- Provided by the publisher "Reflection on the law gives rise to many methodological questions. Some relate to legal doctrines - how best to understand, rationalise and potentially justify areas such as contract law or administrative law or criminal procedure. This chapter, by contrast, will focus on the question of how to understand 'law in general', or the 'nature of law'. Law in this sense is standardly regarded as a particular type of social practice with two dimensions: an institutional dimension involving bodies such as legislatures and courts, and a normative dimension involving the standards and other considerations created and applied by those bodies ('the law'). How should we go about making sense of this social practice? In what way should it be approached? There are three prominent features of our contemporary understanding of law that feed into the methodological debate: (a) the idea that law is a general type of social practice, found in different cultures at different times; (b) the idea that law is a social construction, whose existence depends upon the combined beliefs and actions of a variety of social actors; and (c) the idea that law is a hermeneutic practice, that is, a practice that we self-consciously understand as a distinctive sort of social practice, and in terms of which we understand and structure features of our social world." --Descripción del editor Copyright Contents List of Contributors Introduction / John Tasioulas Part I General Theory 1 Methodology / Grant Lamond 2 The Nature of Law / John Finnis 3 Legal Reasoning / Martha C. Nussbaum 4 Law and Living Well / Timothy Macklem 5 Social Science and the Philosophy of Law / Frederick Schauer Part II Values 6 The Rule of Law / John Tasioulas 7 Justice without Ethics: A Twentieth-Century Innovation? / Onora O’Neill 8 Rights and Human Rights / Jeremy Waldron 9 Equality and Discrimination / Sophia Moreau 10 Authority and Legitimacy / Christoph Kletzer & Massimo Renzo 11 The Ends and Limits of Law / John Stanton-Ife Part III Special Theory 12 Causation and Responsibility / Richard Holton 13 Punishment / Christopher Bennett & Kimberley Brownlee 14 Constitutional Law / Mitchell N. Berman 15 Civil Rights and Liberties / Sherif Girgis & Robert P. George 16 Criminal Law / R.A. Duff 17 Contract / Daniel Markovits 18 Tort Law and Its Theory / John Gardner 19 Property Law / Larissa Katz 20 International Law / Guglielmo Verdirame Index The book provides an accessible, comprehensive, and high quality introduction to the major themes of legal philosophy, written by a stellar international cast of contributors. The volume is an exceptional teaching tool, covering themes such as law's nature, the values it should serve, and issues within specific areas of law from crime to contract.