The last decade has witnessed a particularly intensive debate over methodological issues in legal theory. The publication of Julie Dickson's Evaluation and Legal Theory (2001) was significant, as were collective returns to H.L.A. Hart's 'Postscript' to The Concept of Law. While influential articles have been written in disparate journals, no single collection of the most important papers exists. This volume - the first in a three volume series - aims not only to fill that gap but also propose a systematic agenda for future work. The editors have selected articles written by leading legal...

The last thirty years have witnessed a proliferation of theorising about law, as well as reflection on the very practice of that theorising. As the discipline of legal theory has flourished, so have methodological debates and controversies. These debates are not only relevant to how legal theory understands its own enterprise: its problems and aims, and issues of scope. They are also relevant to many other aspects of the practice of legal theory, and its role vis-a-vis the practice of law and the practice of other related activities, such as legal scholarship and legal education. As the...

The third in a series of three volumes on Contemporary Legal Theory, this volume deals with four topics: 1) the role of legal theory in the legal curriculum; 2) the teaching of legal theory; 3) the relationship of legal theory to legal scholarship; and 4) the relationship of legal theory to comparative law. The focus of the first two topics is on the common law world, where the debates over the aims and proper place of legal theory in the study of law have traversed a good deal of ground since John Austin's 1828 lecture, 'The Uses and the Study of Jurisprudence.' These first two parts offer a...

Ever since H.L.A. Hart's self-description of The Concept of Law as an 'exercise in descriptive sociology', contemporary legal theorists have been debating the relationship between legal theory and sociology, and between legal theory and social science more generally. There have been some who have insisted on a clear divide between legal theory and the social sciences, citing fundamental methodological differences. Others have attempted to bridge gaps, revealing common challenges and similar objects of inquiry. Collecting the work of authors such as Martin Krygier, David Nelken, Brian...

In Western culture, law is dominated by textual representation. Lawyers, academics and law students live and work in a textual world where the written word is law and law is interpreted largely within written and printed discourse. Is it possible, however, to understand and learn law differently? Could modes of knowing, feeling, memory and expectation commonly present in the Arts enable a deeper understanding of law's discourse and practice? If so, how might that work for students, lawyers and academics in the classroom, and in continuing professional development? Bringing together scholars,...

What role can resources that go beyond text play in the development of moral education in law schools and law firms? How can these resources - especially those from the visual and performing arts - nourish the imagination needed to confront the ethical complexities of particular situations? This book asks and answers these questions, thereby introducing radically new resources for law schools and law firms committed to fighting against the moral complacency that can all too often creep into the life of the law. The chapters in this volume build on the companion volume, The Arts and the Legal...

The contributions in this volume pay homage to Zenon BaEkowski, with a focus on problems concerning law s normalization and the revitalizing force of anxiety. Ranging from political critique to methodological issues and from the role of human rights in development to the role of parables and analogy in legal reasoning, the contributions themselves are testament to the richness of BaEkowski s scholarship, as well as to the applicability of his core ideas to a wide range of issues. Divided into five parts, the book focuses on the role and methods of the jurist; conceptions of legality and the...

What can legal theorists learn from legal historians? What guidance can historians take from theorists? What theoretical questions underlie legal historical investigations? These are the questions explored and answered by the articles selected in this volume. Taken together, these papers show that the future of historical jurisprudence is a bright one. This is a jurisprudence that can yield insights about how to conceptualise legal change, how to give voice to those operating outside of legal officialdom, and how to understand the relationship between law and politics. The papers selected...

The relationship between law and science has developed apace over the last three decades. This collection brings together the most important and influential papers theorising that relationship, including papers that seek to protect law's autonomy against the perceived unwelcome inroads of science, and those that seek to shape and change law by incorporating the latest scientific developments. The papers span historical overviews of the attempts by legal scholars to model legal science on scientific methodology, to efforts by legal philosophers scrutinising the claims made on behalf of...

The papers selected for this volume offer a panorama of problems and methods at the intersection of legal theory and the humanities. All taken from the last three decades, the papers discuss issues such as the role of the emotions and the imagination in legal reasoning, and the protection of the diversity of voices and perspective in the name of community. Unduly neglected sources and resources for legal theory are also explored: images, still and moving; performance, aural and gestural; and space, old and new, from the Inns of Court to the World Wide Web. The articles balance renewed calls...