Raymond Wacks PHILOSOPHY OF LAW - Amazon S3

Raymond Wacks

PHILOSOPHY OF LAW

A Very Short Introduction

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? Raymond Wacks 2006

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First published as a Very Short Introduction 2006

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Preface

Brevity is a virtue not normally associated with the law, let alone its practitioners. Nor does its literature avoid the hefty and the long. Law books are weighty; and tomes on legal philosophy also incline to the stout and substantial. Perhaps this is an inescapable vice. Indeed, my own recent student text, Understanding Jurisprudence: An Introduction to Legal Theory (Oxford University Press, 2005) tips the scales at almost a pound-and-a-half, or 600 grams, and runs to nearly 400 pages.

This series, however, obliges its authors to slim down, to compress, to abridge ? without oversimplifying the subject of the book. Distilling the essentials of the philosophy of law is, needless to say, an ambitious, though I hope not an entirely quixotic, task. The purpose of this slender volume is to provide the general reader with a lively and accessible guide to the central questions of legal philosophy in its quest to illuminate the frequently elusive concept of law, and its relation to the universal questions of justice, rights, and morality.

I am deeply indebted to Stephen Guest, Professor of Legal Philosophy at University College, London, who read the complete manuscript and made several helpful comments and suggestions. He must not, of course, be indicted as co-defendant for any misdemeanours I may have committed in these pages.

The staff of Oxford University Press have, as always, been a pleasure to work with. I am particularly grateful to Marsha Filion, James Thompson, Deborah Protheroe, and Jane Robson.

For her love, encouragement, and support, I owe a heavy debt of gratitude to my wife, Penelope, whose word is law.

Contents

List of illustrations x

Introduction xii

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Natural law 1

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Legal positivism 18

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Law as interpretation 40

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Rights and justice 52

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Law and society 75

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Critical legal theory 92

References 108

Further reading 111

Index 118

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