Description
Book SynopsisHow do laws resemble rules of games, moral rules, personal rules, rules found in religious teachings, school rules, and so on? Are laws rules at all? Are they all made by human beings? And if so how should we go about interpreting them? How are they organized into systems, and what does it mean for these systems to have ''constitutions''? Should everyone want to live under a system of law? Is there a special kind of ''legal justice''? Does it consist simply in applying the law of the system? And how does it relate to the ideal of ''the rule of law''?These and other classic questions in the philosophy of law form the subject-matter of Law as a Leap of Faith. In this book John Gardner collects, revisits, and supplements fifteen years of celebrated writings on general questions about law and legal systems - writings in which he attempts, without loss of philosophical finesse or insight, to cut through some of the technicalities with which the subject has become encrusted in the late twent
Trade ReviewEvery essay in this collection contains many interesting and important claims, insights, and speculations ... this is a most impressive book. * Brian H. Bix, Cambridge Law Journal *
Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. Law as a Leap of Faith ; 2. Legal Positivism: 5 1/2 Myths ; 3. Some Types of Law ; 4. Can There be a Written Constitution? ; 5. How Law Claims, What Law Claims ; 6. Nearly Natural Law ; 7. The Legality of Law ; 8. On the Supposed Formality of the Rule of Law ; 9. Hart on Legality, Justice, and Morality ; 10. The Virtue of Justice, the Character of Law ; 11. Law in General
