What Is Philosophy of Law :
Philosophy of law is a branch of philosophy and, more in particular, the branch that deals with philosophical questions about law. Examples of such questions are as follows:
-Origin of Law
– how punishing criminals can be justified,
– what the essence of the rule of law is,
– whether human rights would still exist if they were not included in a statute or treaty,
– why contracts are binding,
– what the nature of law is.
- The Normative Question
- The Conceptual Question
Study of Leviathan
Foundation of Western Legal Tradition
- Ancient
- Modern
Indian Jurisprudence
Natural Law
Utilitarianism
Legal Positivism
Historical Approach
Marxist Approach
Sociological approach
Realist Approach
American Jurisprudence
Feminist Approach to Law
Hart: Introduction to his System
Law as System
- The Concept of Law
- Primary and Secondary Rules
- A Fallible Theory
- A Chain of Rules
- Social Practice as Foundation of Law
- The Role of “Officials”
- A Practical Application: EU Law
- Customary Law
Hart as a Legal Positivist
Thomas Hobbes: Normative Legal Positivism
The State
Positive Law and Natural Law
More Topics
- Law and ideology
- Law and language
- Limits of law
- Nature of Law
- Rule of law and procedural fairness
- Laws of nature
- Ceteris paribus
- Legal obligation and authority
- Legal philosophy
- Economic analysis of law
- Legal positivism
- Legal punishment
- legal reasoning
- Interpretation and coherence of Law
- Precedent vs analogy
- Legal rights
- Political legitimacy
Bibliography
- Andrew Altman (1986), “Legal Realism, Critical Legal Studies, and Dworkin,” Philosophy and Public Affairs, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 205-236.
- Brian Bix (1995), “Conceptual Questions and Jurisprudence,” Legal Theory, vol. 1, no. 4 (December), pp. 465-479.
- Brian Bix (1996a), Jurisprudence: Theory and Context (Boulder, CO: Westview Press).
- Brian Bix (1996b), “Natural Law Theory,” in Dennis M. Patterson (ed.), A Companion to Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory (Cambridge: Blackwell Publishing Co.).
- Brian Leiter (1998), “Naturalism and Naturalized Jurisprudence,” in Brian Bix (ed.), Analyzing Law: New Essays in Legal Theory (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
- Brian Leiter, “Legal Realism,” in Dennis M. Patterson, ed. (1996), A Companion to Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers).
- C.L. Ten (1987), Crime, Guilt, and Punishment (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
- Gerald Dworkin (1972), “Paternalism,” The Monist, vol. 56, pp. 64-84.
- H.L.A. Hart (1963), Law, Liberty and Morality (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
- H.L.A. Hart (1983), Essays in Jurisprudence and Philosophy (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
- H.L.A. Hart (1994), The Concept of Law, 2nd Edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
- Jeremy Bentham (1970), Of Laws In General (London: Athlone Press).
- Jeremy Bentham (1988), A Fragment of Government (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
- Jerome Frank (1930), Law and the Modern Mind (New York: Brentano’s Publishing).
- Joel Feinberg (1979), “Civil Disobedience in the Modern World,” Humanities in Review, vol. 2, pp. 37-60.
- Joel Feinberg (1985), Offense to Others (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
- John Austin (1977), Lectures on Jurisprudence and the Philosophy of Positive Law (St. Clair Shores, MI: Scholarly Press.
- John Austin (1995), The Province of Jurisprudence Determined (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
- John Chipman Gray (1921), The Nature and Source of Law (New York: Macmillan).
- John Finnis (1980), Natural Law and Natural Rights (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
- John Rawls (1964), “Legal Obligation and the Duty of Fair Play,” in Sidney Hook (ed.), Law and Philosophy (New York: New York University Press), pp. 3-18.
- John Stuart Mill (1906), On Liberty (New York: Alfred A. Knopf).
- Joseph Raz (1979), The Authority of Law: Essays on Law and Morality (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
- Joseph Raz (1980), The Concept of a Legal System: An Introduction to the Theory of Legal Systems, Second Edition (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
- Jules L. Coleman (1982), “Negative and Positive Positivism,” 11 Journal of Legal Studies vol. 139, no. 1, pp. 139-164.
- Jules L. Coleman (1989), “On the Relationship Between Law and Morality,” Ratio Juris, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 66-78.
- Jules L. Coleman (1996), “Authority and Reason,” in Robert P. George, The Autonomy of Law: Essays on Legal Positivism (Oxford: Clarendon Press), pp. 287-319.
- Jules L. Coleman (1998), “Incorporationism, Conventionality and The Practical Difference Thesis,” Legal Theory, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 381-426.
- Jules L. Coleman and Jeffrie Murphy (1990), Philosophy of Law (Boulder, CO: Westview Press).
- Kenneth Einar Himma (1998), “Positivism, Naturalism, and the Obligation to Obey Law,” Southern Journal of Philosophy, vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 145-161.
- Kent Greenawalt (1987), Conflicts of Law and Morality (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
- Kimberle Crenshaw, Neil Gotanda, Gary Peller, and Kendall Thomas, eds. (1995), Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement (New York: The New Press).
- Klaus Füßer (1996), “Farewell to ‘Legal Positivism’: The Separation Thesis Unravelling,” in Robert P. George, The Autonomy of Law: Essays on Legal Positivism (Oxford: Clarendon Press), pp. 119-162.
- Lon L. Fuller (1958), “Positivism and Fidelity to Law,” Harvard Law Review, vol. 71, no. 4, pp. 630-672 .
- Lon L. Fuller (1964), The Morality of Law (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press).
- M.B.E. Smith (1973), “Do We have a Prima Facie Obligation to Obey the Law,” 82 Yale Law Journal 950-976.
- Michael Moore (1992), “Law as a Functional Kind,” in Robert P. George (ed.), Natural Law Theories: Contemporary Essays (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
- Michael Moore, “The Moral Worth of Retribution,” in Ferdinand Schoeman, ed. (1987), Responsibility, Character, and the Emotions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
- Oliver Wendall Holmes (1898), “The Path of the Law,” Harvard Law Review, vol. 110, no. 5, pp. 991-1009 .
- Patricia Smith, ed. (1993), Feminist Jurisprudence (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
- Patrick Devlin (1965), The Enforcement of Morals (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
- Randy E. Barnett (1977), “Restitution: A New Paradigm of Criminal Justice,” Ethics, vol. 87, no. 4, pp. 279-301.
- Richard Posner (1992), Economic Analysis of Law, 4th Edition (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company).
- Roger Shiner (1992), Norm and Nature (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
- Ronald Dworkin (1978), Taking Rights Seriously (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).
- Ronald Dworkin (1982), “‘Natural’ Law Revisited,” University of Florida Law Review vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 165-188.
- Ronald Dworkin (1986), Law’s Empire (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).
- Thomas Aquinas (1988), On Law, Morality and Politics (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co.).
- W.J. Waluchow (1994), Inclusive Legal Positivism (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
- William Blackstone (1979), Commentaries on the Law of England (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press).
- William Fisher, Morton Horovitz, and Thomas Reed, eds. (1993), American Legal Realism (New York: Oxford University Press).
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