Principles in Practice - Defending the Pragmatic Approach to Legal Theory

Author: Coleman
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-10-01
Features: This book expands the views introduced by me in the Clarendon Law Lectures at the University of Oxford in the fall of 1998. Being invited to attend these lectures represents the highest honor I have experienced in my career. The author hopes this book can demonstrate the trust of the Clarendon Academic Committee in me. I gave three lectures at the University of Oxford: the first was on tort law; the second was on jurisprudence; and the third was on certain theoretical methods of jurisprudence. This book follows the framework of those lectures, but each lecture has been thoughtfully expanded. Three one-hour lectures have somehow become twelve. This book covers three important themes. In the first part, the author supports the view that the core understanding of tort law embodies corrective justice. In the second part, the author defends a version of positivism. In the third part, the author defends the view known as (misled by Hart and his critics) "descriptive jurisprudence." In each case, the author finds it very helpful to compare the views the author supports with relevant different views. In the third part, the thorough and superior opposing view is Dworkin's "interpretivism" as well as a jurisprudence that is both normative and naturalized (both normative and naturalized).