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...

In recent years we have witnessed major developments in philosophical inquiry concerning the nature of law and, with the continuing development of international and transnational legal institutions, in the phenomenon of law itself. This volume gathers leading writers in the field to take stock of current debates on the nature of law and the aims and methods of legal philosophy.
The volume covers four broad themes. The essays within the first theme address and develop the traditional debates between legal positivism, natural law theory, and Dworkinian interpretivism. Papers within the...