Law’s Quandary

Law’s Quandary
Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Total Pages : 223
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780674043824
ISBN-13 : 0674043820
Rating : 4/5 (24 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Law’s Quandary by : Steven D. Smith

Download or read book Law’s Quandary written by Steven D. Smith and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This lively book reassesses a century of jurisprudential thought from a fresh perspective, and points to a malaise that currently afflicts not only legal theory but law in general. Steven Smith argues that our legal vocabulary and methods of reasoning presuppose classical ontological commitments that were explicitly articulated by thinkers from Aquinas to Coke to Blackstone, and even by Joseph Story. But these commitments are out of sync with the world view that prevails today in academic and professional thinking. So our law-talk thus degenerates into "just words"--or a kind of nonsense. The diagnosis is similar to that offered by Holmes, the Legal Realists, and other critics over the past century, except that these critics assumed that the older ontological commitments were dead, or at least on their way to extinction; so their aim was to purge legal discourse of what they saw as an archaic and fading metaphysics. Smith's argument starts with essentially the same metaphysical predicament but moves in the opposite direction. Instead of avoiding or marginalizing the "ultimate questions," he argues that we need to face up to them and consider their implications for law.


Law’s Quandary Related Books

Law’s Quandary
Language: en
Pages: 223
Authors: Steven D. Smith
Categories: Law
Type: BOOK - Published: 2009-07-01 - Publisher: Harvard University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This lively book reassesses a century of jurisprudential thought from a fresh perspective, and points to a malaise that currently afflicts not only legal theory
Democracy More or Less
Language: en
Pages: 263
Authors: Bruce E. Cain
Categories: Law
Type: BOOK - Published: 2015 - Publisher: Cambridge University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book studies how American political reform efforts often fail because of the unrealistic ideal of a fully informed and engaged citizenry.
Law's Limits
Language: en
Pages: 220
Authors: Neil K. Komesar
Categories: Law
Type: BOOK - Published: 2001-12-10 - Publisher: Cambridge University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This 2002 book demonstrates how property law and rights shift and cycle in the US.
The Spirit Of American Law
Language: en
Pages: 589
Authors: George S Grossman
Categories: Political Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2018-04-24 - Publisher: Routledge

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Intended for the general public, the readings in this collection explore the roots of American law from pre-history to ancient Greece and Rome and the common la
The Diffusion of Law
Language: en
Pages: 256
Authors: Sue Farran
Categories: Law
Type: BOOK - Published: 2016-03-09 - Publisher: Routledge

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In considering diffusion from a global perspective, this book provides timely new insights into its application in a variety of fields and at many levels of bot