A New Introduction to Jurisprudence: Legality, Legitimacy and the Foundations of the Law

A New Introduction to Jurisprudence takes one of the central problems of law and jurisprudence as its point of departure: what is the law? Adopting an intermediate position between legal positivism and natural law, this book reflects on the concept of `liberal democracy' or `constitutional democracy'.

In five chapters the book analyses: (i) the idea of higher law, (ii) liberal democracy as a legitimate model for the state, (iii) the separation of church and state or secularism as essential for the democratic state, (iv) the universality of higher law principles, (v) the history of modern political thought.

This interdisciplinary approach to jurisprudence is relevant for legal scholars, philosophers, political theorists, public intellectuals, historians, and politicians.

Preface

Chapter 1: Legality and Legitimacy in Natural Law and Legal Positivism

2. Five Characteristics of Natural Law
4. Plato
6. Teleology
8. Man as a Rational Being
10. Metaphysical Principles
12. Absolute Validity
14. A Touchstone
16. Objections
18. Sein and Sollen
20. Empty Formulas
22. Feelings
24. Evaluation of the Objections
26. Lon Fuller
28. Natural Law, a Form of Morality?
30. Judge and Conductor
32. Ubi Societas, Ibi Ius
34. Again: Empty Formulas
36. Alternative Natural Law
38. Perelman and Hayek
40. Hayek on Spontaneous Order
42. Tradition
44. A Touchstone for the Law
46. Gustav Radbruch
48. H.L.A. Hart
50. The Hart-Fuller Debate
52. A Synthesis
54. Lex Iniusta Non Est Lex?

Chapter 2: Democracy and the Rule of Law as a Legitimate Form of Government

2. Postmodernism
4. Liberal Democracy
6. Democracy
8. The Rule of Law and "Rechtsstaat"
10. Five Principles of the Rule of Law
12. The GPM
14. Humanism
16. Humanism and the Rule of Law
18. The Tension Between Entrenchment and Democracy
20. Paine and Burke
22. Judicial Review
24. Contradictions Between the GPM
26. Two Consequences
28. The End Thesis Revisited

Chapter 3: The Separation of Church and State

2. Bishop Nazir-Ali
4. Nazir-Ali Under Criticism
6. Theoterrorism and the Agnostic State
8. The Atheist State
10. The Theocratic State
12. Saudi-Arabia as a Theocratic State
14. Prosecutions and Executions
16. Cruel Punishments
18. Phinehas and Moses
20. Who Are We These Days?
22. State Religions
24. The Multiculturalist State
26. The Agnostic State
28. Western?
30. The French Laicite

Chapter 4: The Universality of Values and Principles

2. Cultural Conflicts
4. Live and Let Live
6. Female Genital Mutilation
8. The Conflict Defined
10. Acceptance on the Basis of Respect
12. Cultural Relativism
14. Six Cultural Relativists
16. Herodotus
18. The Sophists
20. Protagoras
22. Montaigne
24. Sumner
26. Folkways
28. Benedict
30. Socially Approved Habits
32. Westermarck
34. Stace, Bloom, and Bork
36. Dickens and Kipling
38. Seven Elements of Cultural Relativism
40. Dworkin on Critical Morality
42. Critical Morality and Cultural Anthropology
44. Consistency
46. Practical Objections
48. Universality is Indispensable
50. Hamed Abdel-Samad

Chapter 5: The Classical Foundations of Modern Law

2. A Modern Worldview
4. From the Middle Ages to Modern Times
6. Descartes
8. Penal Law and Modernity
10. Enlightenment
12. Social Contract Theories
14. Hobbes
16. Rousseau
18. Human Rights
20. Rousseau and Hobbes Revisited

Index