Jurisprudence: Themes and Concepts

Jurisprudence: Themes and Concepts offers an original introduction to, and critical analysis of, the central themes studied in jurisprudence courses. The book is presented in three parts each of which contains General Themes, Advanced Topics, tutorial questions and guidance on further reading:

• Law and Politics, locating the place of law within the study of institutions of government
• Legal Reasoning, examining the contested nature of the application of law
• Law in Modernity, exploring the social forces that shape legal development.

This second edition includes enhanced discussion of the rise of legal positivism within the context of the rise of the modern state, the changing role of natural and human rights discourse, concepts of justice in and beyond the nation state, the impact of emergency doctrines in contemporary legal regulation, and challenges to the rule of law in light of shifting and competing demands for new types of social solidarity.

Accessible, interdisciplinary, and socially informed this book has been revised to take into account the latest developments in jurisprudential scholarship.

Part 1: Law and Politics. 1. General Themes: 1.1 Introduction to the Relationship between Law and Politics 1.2 Sovereignty 1.3 The rule of law & the `inner morality of law' 1.4 Rights 1.5 Identifying Valid Law. 2. Advanced Topics: 2.1 Justice 2.2 Constitutionalism and Citizenship 2.3 Law, politics and globalisation 2.4 Law and the state of emergency 2.5 The Rule of law in political transitions. Tutorials. Part 2: Legal Reasoning . 1. General Themes: 1.1 Legal System and legal reasoning 1.2 Legal Formalism 1.3 American Legal Realism 1.4 Open texture' and the limits of judicial discretion 1.5 Law as Interpretative practice 1.6 The politics of legal reasoning. 2. Advanced Topics. 2.1 Natural law and the limits of rule following 2.2 Equality, difference and domination: feminist critiques of adjudication 2.3 Trials, facts and narratives 2.4 Judging in an unjust society 2.5 Law and Deconstruction. Tutorials. Part 3: Law and Modernity . 1. General Themes. 1.1 The Advent of Modernity 1.2 Law and Social Solidarity 1.3 Law, power and exploitation 1.4 Formal legal rationality and legal modernity 1.5 Transformations of Modern law. 2. Advanced Topics. 2.1 Legal pluralism 2.2 Juridification 2.3 Displacing the juridical: Foucault on power and discipline 2.4.Law in the risk society 2.5 Law and Autopoiesis