This text lays out a course of study combining the traditional subject matter of jurisprudence with a series of introductions to a variety of other theoretical perspectives. It is designed for those taking jurisprudence/legal theory courses, and political science, philosophy and sociology students.

Understanding Jurisprudence explores the concept of law and its role within society. Detailing both the traditional and modern jurisprudential theories Raymond Wacks clearly relates these often complex arguments to the nature and purpose of our current legal systems. This book reveals the intriguing and challenging nature of jurisprudence with clarity and enthusiasm. Without avoiding the complexities and subtleties of the subject, the author provides an illuminating guide to the central questions of legal theory. An experienced teacher of jurisprudence and distinguished writer in the field, his approach is stimulating, accessible, and entertaining.

Jurisprudence: Outlines, Diagrams, and Study Sheets is a collection of outlines and diagrams as an aid to the study of Jurisprudence and Legal Theory. Designed to help you get the big picture of the theories, jurists, and philosophical and historical background of the subject. Use the diagrams to see an overall picture of each subtopic before you begin reading your texts, to organize your notes, and to review and revise. Prepare for your exams by using them to test your knowledge on the details. This book covers the following topics: Introduction to Jurisprudence The Nature of Legal Theory Hobbes, Bentham, and Austin: Imperative Theory Natural Law Theory HLA Hart's The Concept of Law The Rule of Recognition Hart's Defenses Against Natural Law Theory and Fuller Raz's Theory of Law: Service Conception Practical Reason Kelsen's Theory of Law: Norms and Delicts Dworkin's Theory of Law Marxism and Marxist Legal Theory Liberalism Feminist Legal Theory Part of the Legal Yankee VisuaLaw Series, this study aid joins the others in the series on Introduction to the Common Law, Criminal Law, Con and Admin Law, Contract Law, Law of Tort, Property Law, and Commercial Law: Diagrams for Law Students. Visit www.legalyankee.com for more information.

If Raz and Dworkin disagree over how law should be characterised,how are we, their jurisprudential public, supposed to go about adjudicating between the rival theories which they offer us? To what considerations would those theorists themselves appeal in order to convince us that their accounts of law are accurate and successful? Moreover, what is it that makes an account of law successful? Evaluation and Legal Theory tackles methodological or meta-theoretical issues such as these, and does so via attempting to answer the question: to what extent, and in what sense, must a legal theorist make value judgements about his data in order to construct a successful theory of law? Dispelling the obfuscatory myth that legal positivism seeks a 'value-free' account of law, the author attempts to explain and defend Joseph Razs position that evaluation is essential to successful legal theory, whilst refuting John Finnis and Ronald Dworkins contentions that the legal theorist must morally evaluate and morally justify the law in order to properly explain its nature. The book does not claim to solve the many mysteries of meta-legal theory but does seek to contribute to and engender rigorous and focused debate on this topic.

Explores the relationship between law and justice

The third in a series of three volumes on Contemporary Legal Theory, this volume deals with four topics: 1) the role of legal theory in the legal curriculum; 2) the teaching of legal theory; 3) the relationship of legal theory to legal scholarship; and 4) the relationship of legal theory to comparative law. The focus of the first two topics is on the common law world, where the debates over the aims and proper place of legal theory in the study of law have traversed a good deal of ground since John Austin's 1828 lecture, 'The Uses and the Study of Jurisprudence.' These first two parts offer a selection of the most important papers, including surveys, as well as pedagogical viewpoints and particular course descriptions from analytical, critical, feminist, law-and-literature and global perspectives. The last three decades have seen just as many changes for legal scholarship and comparative law. These changes (such as the rise of empirical legal scholarship) have often attracted the attention of legal theorists. Within comparative law, the last thirty years have witnessed intense methodological reflection within the discipline; the results of these reflections are themselves properly recognised as legal theoretical contributions. The volume collects the key papers, including those by Neil MacCormick, Mark Van Hoecke, Andrew Halpin, William Ewald and Geoffrey Samuel.