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............................................................................................................................DescriptionThe Politics of Jurisprudence – A Critical Introduction to Legal Philosophy explores what jurisprudence is about, what it seeks to do, how it does it and – most importantly – how its conclusion can be brought to bear on everyday problems of legal practice and major social, moral or political issues. It selects material to illustrate general approaches to legal theory and to explore professional and political uses to which that theory has been put.The first edition was widely used as a student text. In response, Roger Cotterrell has opened up his approach, in this, the second edition of the book, to address the most important areas of theory that have become prominent since its original publication.The new edition has been substantially revised. The text is written with even grater clarity and all reference are brought right up to date. There are now two new chapters which deal with the great variety of critical approaches to Anglo American legal philosophy that have flourished in the past decade.............................................................................................................................Contents1. Legal philosophy in context• Jurisprudence, legal philosophy and legal theory• Legal philosophy and legal practice• Justifying normative legal theory• Unity and system in law• Professionalisation and politics• Legal philosophy in social and political context• How should legal philosophy be interpreted contextuallv?2. The theory of common law• The character of common law thought• The common law judge• Can common law thought explain legal development?• Common law and legislation• The political and social environment• Savigny: a theory for common law?• Maine's historical jurisprudence• Maine on politics and society• Historical jurisprudence and the legal profession• The fate of Maine's new science3. Sovereign and subject: Bentham and Austin• The empire of darkness and the region of light• Positive law and positive morality• The coercive structure of a law• Sanctions and power-conferring rules• Sovereignty• Some characteristics of Austin's sovereign• Must the sovereign be legally illimitable?• The judge as delegate of the sovereign• Austin's theory of the centralised state• Austin and the legal profession4. Analytical jurisprudence and liberal democracy: Hart and Kelsen• Empiricism and conceptualism• Hart's linguistic empiricism• The character of rules• Sociological drift• The structure of a legal system• The existence of a legal system• Hart's hermeneutics• Judicial decisions and the 'open texture' of rules• Kelsen's conceptualism• The machine now runs by itself• Democracy and the Rule of Law• Conclusion5. The appeal of natural law• Legal positivism and natural law• Is natural law dead?• Natural law and legal authority• The 'rebirth' of natural law• Anglo-American lessons from the Nazi era• The ideal of legality and the existence of law• A purposive view of law• Fuller and the common law tradition• Politics and professional responsibility• Natural law tamed?6. The problem of the creative judge: Pound and Dworkin• Pounds rejection of the model of rules• The outlook of sociological jurisprudence• A theory of interests• Search for measures of values• The Wider context of pound’s Jurisprudence• Dworkin and Pound• Principles and Politicies• The Closed world of legal interpretation• Politics, Professionalism and Interpretative Communities7. Scepticism and realism• Pragmatism and realism• Realism and normative legal theory• Llewellyn's constructive doctrinal realism• The political context of American legal realism• Post-realist policy-science• Post-realist radical scepticism• Legal professionalism and the legacy of realism8. A jurisprudence of difference: class, gender and race• The ghost of Marx• Equality, difference and liberal feminism• Different moral voices in law• Radical feminism and the gender of law• Postmodern feminism• Critical race theory• Politics, professionalism, difference9. The deconstruction and reconstruction of law• Postmodernism and deconstruction• Recovering minor jurisprudences• Law without foundations• Derrida, justice, autopoiesis• Law's empty shell• Reorienting legal theory• Theorising legal communities• Legal theory beyond the nation state• Legal theory and legal professionsNotes and further readingReferencesIndex............................................................................................................................Author DetailsRoger Cotterrell, LLD, MSc (Soc) is Professor of Legal Theory at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London and taught Previously at the University of Leicester. He has published widely in the fields of legal theory and sociology of law and among his other books are The Sociology of Law: An Introduction, Law's Community: Legal Theory in Sociological Perspective and Emile Durkheim: Law in a Moral Domain, He has held visiting positions at universities in several European countries, the United States and Hong Kong and has served as a trustee of the Law and Society Association (USA).............................................................................................................................
