Description
Book SynopsisBecause both morally deficient and morally-minded citizens need rules to help them minimise the errors of unconstrained reasoning, someone must have final authority to determine, by means of general rules, what should be done in a wide range of legal cases. This title deals with this topic.
Trade Review“Accessible to the non-specialist, the arguments found in
The Rule of Rules are clearly made and well-illustrated with concrete examples. The authors address a large number of topics and take up controversial positions on most. This will make an important contribution to ongoing jurisprudential debates.”—Mark Tushnet, Georgetown University Law Center
“This book not only substantially advances our understanding of the nature of rules themselves, but is by some margin the best treatment there is of the relationship between rules and law. In an era in which context, flexibility, and discretion are often uncritically celebrated, this book throws down the gauntlet for a rule-based understanding of law. No one who is interested in the nature of legal reasoning and legal decision-making can afford to ignore this book, and no one who is skeptical about the importance of rules to law can avoid the challenges that Alexander and Sherwin present.”—Frederick Schauer, Harvard University
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
Part I. The Circumstances of Law
1. Disagreement, Uncertainty, and Authoritative Settlement
2. Settlement Requisites and the Nature of Authoritative Rules
3. Hierarchies of Rules
Part II. Acting Under Rules
4. The Problem of Rules
5. Interpretation of Rules
Part III. Issues of Legal Reasoning
6. Reasoning by Analogy
7. Reasoning in Light of Precedent
8. Reasoning from Legal Principles
Part IV. The Settlement Function and Jurisprudential Debates
9. Legal Positivism and Natural Law
10. Lex, Rules, and Some Miscellaneous Problems of Jurisprudence
Notes
Index
