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Understanding Jurisprudence PDF

223 Pages·2006·1.77 MB·English
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Understanding Jurisprudence Jurisprudence considers general philosophical and theoretical questions about the nature, purpose and operation of law as a whole. This book introduces students to contemporary debates in jurisprudence and encourages them to think in a theoretical and critical way about the nature of law, legal reasoning and adjudication. Wider issues of morality, politics and society are discussed with reference to legal cases and examples to provide as broad a perspective on the law as possible. Key features of this textbook include: (cid:2) introductions to each chapter (cid:2) analysis of how jurisprudential issues can arise in everyday life (cid:2) a wide range of cases to ground the theoretical discussion (cid:2) in-depth discussion of the relationship of law to force, morality and politics, as well as of rights, justice and feminist jurisprudence. The text provides a concis e treatment of all the major topics typically covered in an undergraduate course on jurisprudence, and succinctly explains the arguments for and against the different approaches to the issues raised. Denise Meyerson is Professor of Law at Macquarie University, Sydney and Honorary Professor of Law at the University of Cape Town. Understanding Jurisprudence Denise Meyerson First published 2007 by Routledge-Cavendish 2 Park Square,Milton Park,Abingdon,Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge-Cavendish 270 Madison Ave,New York,NY 10016 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. Routledge-Cavendish is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2007 Denise Meyerson All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,or other means,now known or hereafter invented,including photocopying and recording,or in any information storage or retrieval system,without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-86787-4 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10:1–85941–956–9 (pbk) ISBN13:978–1–85941–956–4 (pbk) For Mike Contents Preface ix Table of cases xi Introduction 1 1 Law and force 9 2 Law and morality 33 3 Law and politics: mainstream theories 61 4 Law and politics: challenging the mainstream 89 5 Rights 117 6 Public and private 133 7 Justice 151 8 Feminist jurisprudence 173 Bibliography 198 Index 205 Preface This book draws on and elucidates the work of all the major contemporary jurisprudential scholars in the Anglo-American tradition as well as selected historical thinkers who have made important contributions to jurisprudential debates. I have tried to make theoretical and abstract views understandable while avoiding over-simplification. The reader should therefore not expect a ‘Cook’s Tour’or potted summary of various theories and thinkers. I try to do justice to the theories which are discussed, while also explaining them in ways that are, Ihope, intuitive, accessible and stimulating. The book carves up the subject matter of jurisprudence in a distinctive way. It is organised around issues rather than key figures or theories. So it does not contain chapters devoted to theorists like Kelsen or Dworkin, nor to theories like ‘the natural law tradition’ or ‘realism’. I present the subject matter of jurisprudence via the arguments offered by different legal theorists in relation to the issues about which they disagree. As a result, most of the theorists discussed make several appearances in the book. The book also contains numerous cross-references designed to bring out the fact that the issues are not discrete but systematically related – that answers to one question invariably carry implications for the answers to other questions. Though my own views will at times become apparent, the emphasis throughout is on an even-handed presentation of the reasons for and against the differing approaches to the various issues raised. I have not aimed to persuade readers to adopt a particular view but rather to give them the resources to arrive at their own assessments of the various theories and positions discussed, and to form views of their own. I would like to thank a number of people for very helpful comments: AntonFagan, Christina Murray, Peter Radan, Cameron Stewart, Max Taylor and Paul Taylor.

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Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.