The Philosophy of Positive Law

The Philosophy of Positive Law PDF Author: James Bernard Murphy
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300138016
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 254

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this first book-length study of positive law, James Bernard Murphy rewrites central chapters in the history of jurisprudence by uncovering a fundamental continuity among four great legal philosophers: Plato, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Hobbes, and John Austin. In their theories of positive law, Murphy argues, these thinkers represent successive chapters in a single fascinating story. That story revolves around a fundamental ambiguity: is law positive because it is deliberately imposed (as opposed to customary law) or because it lacks moral necessity (as opposed to natural law)? These two senses of positive law are not coextensive yet the discourse of positive law oscillates unstably between them. What, then, is the relation between being deliberately imposed and lacking moral necessity? Murphy demonstrates how the discourse of positive law incorporates both normative and descriptive dimensions of law, and he discusses the relation of positive law not only to jurisprudence but also to the philosophy of language, ethics, theories of social order, and biblical law.

The Philosophy of Positive Law

The Philosophy of Positive Law PDF Author: James Bernard Murphy
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300138016
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 254

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this first book-length study of positive law, James Bernard Murphy rewrites central chapters in the history of jurisprudence by uncovering a fundamental continuity among four great legal philosophers: Plato, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Hobbes, and John Austin. In their theories of positive law, Murphy argues, these thinkers represent successive chapters in a single fascinating story. That story revolves around a fundamental ambiguity: is law positive because it is deliberately imposed (as opposed to customary law) or because it lacks moral necessity (as opposed to natural law)? These two senses of positive law are not coextensive yet the discourse of positive law oscillates unstably between them. What, then, is the relation between being deliberately imposed and lacking moral necessity? Murphy demonstrates how the discourse of positive law incorporates both normative and descriptive dimensions of law, and he discusses the relation of positive law not only to jurisprudence but also to the philosophy of language, ethics, theories of social order, and biblical law.

Foundations of Law

Foundations of Law PDF Author: Adam J. MacLeod
Publisher: Ingram
ISBN: 9781531004637
Category : Jurisprudence
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Foundations of Law is designed to help law and pre-law students make sense of law in a changeful age. It is founded upon the conviction of the English jurist William Blackstone that students who intend to study law need both technical instruction in law and liberal education in the history and jurisprudential concepts of law. The book considers the enduring nature of law and its relationship to equity and justice with the assistance of the authors of what we today call the Great Books. It also emphasizes enduring aspects of legal practice: the role of logic; the meaning and importance of conscience and of due process; different approaches to textual interpretation; and the relation of law to other normative concepts (such as morality and religion) and to science (such as economics). The book surveys classic writings concerning law and justice--for example, the works of Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas. It contains writings that are foundational to Anglo-American legal norms and institutions--Blackstone, Bentham, Locke, the Federalists, Lincoln, Holmes, and others. It includes helpful analytical insights from influential jurisprudence scholars--Austin, Hart, Hohfeld, Dworkin, and Finnis, among others. Most uniquely, it matches each of those writings with constitutions, declarations, statutes, judicial decisions, and other legal and political texts (even a letter from jail) that illustrate and reinforce the key lessons drawn from the great works. The book does not leave students adrift in abstractions. It provides a solid grounding for understanding and practicing law in a rapidly-changing world. Combines technical instruction in law with liberal education in the history and jurisprudential concepts of law. Provides a solid grounding in the enduring characteristics of law to enable students to understand and practice law in a rapidly-changing world. Surveys the great books concerning law, equity, and justice. Uniquely matches each great book excerpt with judicial decisions, statutes, proclamations, and other legal materials to illustrate how foundational concepts recur in contemporary legal norms and institutions and to illustrate and reinforce the key lessons drawn from the great works. Emphasizes enduring aspects of legal practice: the role of logic; the meaning and importance of conscience and of due process; different approaches to textual interpretation; and the relation of law to other normative concepts (such as morality and religion) and to science (such as economics). Surveys classic writings concerning law and justice--for example, the works of Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas. Surveys writings that are foundational to Anglo-American legal norms and institutions--for example, the works of Blackstone, Bentham, Locke, the Federalists, Lincoln, and Holmes. Includes helpful analytical insights from influential jurisprudence scholars--Austin, Hart, Hohfeld, Dworkin, and Finnis, among others. Opens each chapter with reading questions to assist beginning students. Follows readings with notes to direct more advanced students to additional reading and further lines of inquiry.

The Foundation of Norms in Islamic Jurisprudence and Theology

The Foundation of Norms in Islamic Jurisprudence and Theology PDF Author: Omar Farahat
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108476767
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 259

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book offers a new way of understanding classical Islamic theories, holding that divine revelation is necessary for the knowledge of norms and its reading of the issue of reason breaks new ground in Islamic theology, law and ethics. It will appeal to students and scholars of Islamic studies, Islamic ethics, law and post-colonial theory.

The Epistemological Foundations of Law

The Epistemological Foundations of Law PDF Author: Isaak Ismail Dore
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781594603877
Category : Knowledge, Theory of
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book differs from a standard jurisprudence text in that it examines law as a truth claim. Its major question is whether there are any eternal truths about the law, and, if so, whether they are knowable. Examples of questions discussed are: What is the correct foundation of law? Is it knowable? What is its source? What is the role of reason? Does reason exist apart from the "sources" of law, in the Cartesian tradition separating mind and body (res cogitans and res extensa)? What is the nature of the obligation to obey the law and how does it arise? What is the nature of the connection between law and morality? The first Western philosopher who explicitly asserted that law is a truth claim was Socrates. It is not surprising that other Western philosophers followed this path. This book traces the origins of this claim to some 500 years before Socrates walked the streets of Athens and then provides a compete historical profile over eight overlapping historical/philosophical periods: The pre-philosophical period, the presocratic period, the post-socratic period, the Roman period, the medieval/Christian period, the enlightenment period, the modern period and the postmodern period. These periods are intended to serve as analytical categories on which the organizational framework of the book rests. They also serve as evolutionary guideposts in an intellectual voyage, so that the reader gets an integrated picture of law not just as a social phenomenon but also as a truth claim, which, like all truth claims, can be critically evaluated. "This book is a brilliantly conceived and executed exploration of the extent to which law is rooted in "truth": rational truth, perceptive truth, and moral truth. This question is obviously foundational to law, whether law is viewed practically or theoretically. Through keen selection of materials and sharp commentary, Professor Dore presents - in one volume - the best current treatment of these issues from a broad historical perspective. It is an engaging and critical achievement, important reading for anyone interested in law as a human institution." -- Laura S. Underkuffler, J. DuPratt White Professor of Law, Cornell University Law School

Institutes of Divine Jurisprudence

Institutes of Divine Jurisprudence PDF Author: Christian Thomasius
Publisher: Natural Law and Enlightenment
ISBN: 9780865975187
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Christian Thomasius's natural jurisprudence is essential to understanding the origins of the Enlightenment in Germany, where his importance was comparable to that of John Locke's in England. First published in 1688, Thomasius's Institutionum jurisprudentiae divinae (Institutes of Divine Jurisprudence) attempted to draw a clear distinction between natural and revealed law and to emphasize that human reason was able to know the precepts of natural law without the aid of Scripture. Thomasius also argued that his orthodox Lutheran opponents had failed to understand this distinction and thereby had confused reason and Scripture. In addition to the Institutes of Divine Jurisprudence, this volume contains significant selections from his Fundamenta juris naturae et gentium (Foundations of the Law of Nature and Nations), published in 1705. In Foundations Thomasius significantly revised the theory he had put forward in the Institutes, and much of the Foundations therefore is a paragraph-by-paragraph commentary on his earlier ideas. These works are a companion to Thomasius's Essays on Church, State, and Politics, and together they provide the first-ever English presentation of this preeminent German thinker.

A New Introduction to Jurisprudence

A New Introduction to Jurisprudence PDF Author: Paul Cliteur
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429655487
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 199

Get Book Here

Book Description
A New Introduction to Jurisprudence takes one of the central problems of law and jurisprudence as its point of departure: what is the law? Adopting an intermediate position between legal positivism and natural law, this book reflects on the concept of ‘liberal democracy’ or ‘constitutional democracy’. In five chapters the book analyses: (i) the idea of higher law, (ii) liberal democracy as a legitimate model for the state, (iii) the separation of church and state or secularism as essential for the democratic state, (iv) the universality of higher law principles, (v) the history of modern political thought. This interdisciplinary approach to jurisprudence is relevant for legal scholars, philosophers, political theorists, public intellectuals, historians, and politicians.

Normative Jurisprudence

Normative Jurisprudence PDF Author: Robin West
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139504126
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 221

Get Book Here

Book Description
Normative Jurisprudence aims to reinvigorate normative legal scholarship that both criticizes positive law and suggests reforms for it, on the basis of stated moral values and legalistic ideals. It looks sequentially and in detail at the three major traditions in jurisprudence – natural law, legal positivism and critical legal studies – that have in the past provided philosophical foundations for just such normative scholarship. Over the last fifty years or so, all of these traditions, although for different reasons, have taken a number of different turns – toward empirical analysis, conceptual analysis or Foucaultian critique – and away from straightforward normative criticism. As a result, normative legal scholarship – scholarship that is aimed at criticism and reform – is now lacking a foundation in jurisprudential thought. The book criticizes those developments and suggests a return, albeit with different and in many ways larger challenges, to this traditional understanding of the purpose of legal scholarship.

Philosophical Foundations of the Nature of Law

Philosophical Foundations of the Nature of Law PDF Author: Wilfrid J. Waluchow
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199675511
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 386

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume examines power-sharing agreements, their legitimacy and their compatibility with human rights law. Providing a clear, accessible introduction to the political science and human rights law on the issue, the book is an invaluable guide to all those engaged with transitional justice, peace agreements, and human rights.

The Cambridge Companion to Natural Law Jurisprudence

The Cambridge Companion to Natural Law Jurisprudence PDF Author: George Duke
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107120519
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 469

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume brings together leading experts on natural law theory to provide perspectives on the nature and foundations of law.

Philosophy of Law

Philosophy of Law PDF Author: Andrei Marmor
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691163960
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 180

Get Book Here

Book Description
In Philosophy of Law, Andrei Marmor provides a comprehensive analysis of contemporary debates about the fundamental nature of law—an issue that has been at the heart of legal philosophy for centuries. What the law is seems to be a matter of fact, but this fact has normative significance: it tells people what they ought to do. Marmor argues that the myriad questions raised by the factual and normative features of law actually depend on the possibility of reduction—whether the legal domain can be explained in terms of something else, more foundational in nature. In addition to exploring the major issues in contemporary legal thought, Philosophy of Law provides a critical analysis of the people and ideas that have dominated the field in past centuries. It will be essential reading for anyone curious about the nature of law.