Description
Book SynopsisJean-Jacques Rousseau stands as one of the most influential figures in the history of philosophy. His masterpiece-The Social Contract-has had a profound effect on legal and political theorists ever since its appearance. Rousseau and Law presents for the first time in one collection the most important contemporary work exploring his many contributions to legal theory. These essays deal with a variety of issues, such as social contract theories, democratic rights, fundamental law, natural law and natural rights, affinities between Rousseau and Dworkin's legal theories, narrative, bioethics, and promise enforcement.
Table of ContentsContents: The General Will and Social Contract Theory: What is the general will?, Gopal Sreenivasan (2000); Universal and general wills: Hegel and Rousseau, Arthur Ripstein; Forced to be free, John Hope Mason. Democratic Rights: Reflections on Rousseau: autonomy and democracy, Joshua Cohen; Rousseau on proportional majority rule, Paul Weirach; Rousseau on agenda-setting and majority rule, Ethan Putterman; 'To persuade without convincing': the language of Rousseau's legislator, Christopher Kelly; Rousseau for (and against) censorship, Christopher Kelly. Fundamental Law: Rousseau on fundamental law, Melissa Schwartzberg. Natural Law and Natural Rights: Rousseau's theory of natural law as conditional, John B. Noone Jr; Rousseau's moral realism: replacing natural law with the general will, Arthur M. Melzer; Rousseau's Pufendorf: natural law and the foundations of commercial society, Robert Wokler. Rousseau and Dworkin: Rousseau in Dworkin: judicial rulings as expressions of the general will, Richard Nordahl. Narratives and the Law: Narratives of hierarchy: Loving v. Virginia and the literary imagination, Martha Nussbaum. Bioethics: The reemergence of enlightenment ideas in the 1994 French bioethics debates, Nan T. Ball. Promise Enforcement: Promise enforcement in public housing: lessons from Rousseau and Hundertwasser, Kirsten D.A. Carpenter; Name index.
