Legal
Thought and Philosophy clarifies background questions in legal research
projects, such as the relationship between law and justice, law and
politics, law and knowledge, facts and norms, normativity and validity,
constituent and constitutional power, and rule and context. It provides
advanced students in law and philosophy with an account of legal
thinking that combines analytical and phenomenological insights. From a
conception of justice as principled political self-restraint, the book
explains why there are moral reasons to separate law from morality
conceptually and in what sense a legal order is positive - that is, set
by authority and bound up with history. The book explores the conditions
under which law may become an object of knowledge and theorising,
before finally discussing how these features come together in law as
rule-following by citizens, officials, judges, and legislators
alike.Addressing advanced students in law and philosophy, this key book:
* bridges separate traditions in legal philosophy (in particular
analytical philosophy and phenomenology)* develops a view of law as an
institution of authority from a conception of justice in the
socio-political relationship between 'we' and 'the others'* presents a
systematic account of normativity and validity* explains in what sense
law is 'doing things with rules'.
