Philosophy of Law: The Fundamentals

Beginning with the deceptively simple question "What is law?" Philosophy of Law introduces readers to the basic analytical and normative issues in the field. The volume is a wide–ranging text that discusses the concepts of law, highlights key historical and contemporary thinkers who have shaped the discourse, and provides a unified treatment of the various issues in the philosophy of law.

Murphy frames the discussion with three central commonplaces about law: that it is authoritative, that it is a social matter, and that it is for the common good. Enlivened with numerous everyday examples, this text is an important resource for students coming to the subject for the first time.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction.

0.1 Philosophy, the Familiar, and the Unfamiliar.

0.2 What Are Our Commonplaces About Law?.

0.3 The Course of Our Inquiry.

For Further Reading.

Chapter 1: Analytical Fundamentals: The Concept of Law.

1.1 The Question, and its Importance.

1.2 Basic Austinianism.

1.3 Positivist Lessons.

1.4 Hartian Positivism.

1.5 Interlude: Hard and Soft Positivisms.

1.6 Natural Law Theory.

1.7 Fuller s Procedural Natural Law Theory.

1.8 Aquinas s Substantive Natural Law Theory.

1.9 A Suggested Resolution.

Appendix: Why is it Called Natural Law Theory ?.

For Further Reading.

Chapter 2: Normative Fundamentals: The Basic Roles of Paradigmatic Legal Systems.

2.1 What are the Basic Roles of Paradigmatic Legal Systems?.

2.2 The Role of Subject.

2.3 The Role of Legislator.

2.4 The Role of Judge.

For Further Reading.

Chapter 3: The Aims of Law.

3.1 The Aims of Law and the Common Good.

3.2 The Harm–to–others Principle.

3.3 Challenges to the Harm–to–others Principle: Types of Harm.

3.4 Challenges to the Harm–to–others Principle: The Party Armed.

3.5 Morals Legislation.

For Further Reading.

4 The Nature and Aims of the Criminal Law.

4.1 Types of Legal Norms.

4.2 Crime and Punishment.

4.3 Two Normative Theories of Punishment.

4.4 Justification and Excuse.

For Further Reading.

5 The Nature and Aims of Tort Law.

5.1 Torts and Crimes.

5.2 Torts and Damages.

5.3 Economic and Justice Accounts of Negligence Torts.

5.4 Elements of the Negligence Tort.

5.5 Damages.

5.6 Intentional Torts and Torts of Strict Liability.

For Further Reading.

6 Challenging the Law.

6.1 Putting Legal Roles to the Question.

6.2 Against the Role of Subject: Philosophical Anarchism.

6.3 Against the Role of Legislator: Marxism / Feminist Legal Theory / Critical Race Theory.

6.4 Against the Role of Judge: American Legal Realism / Critical Legal studies.

For Further Reading.

Index.

Mark C. Murphy is Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University, where he works in moral, political, and legal philosophy. He is the author of Natural Law and Practical Rationality (2001), An Essay on Divine Authority (2002), and Natural Law in Jurisprudence and Politics (2006), and the editor of Alasdair MacIntyre (2003).

"Mark Murphy is the most interesting and original natural law theorist of his generation, and this wide–ranging, learned, and lucid introduction to legal philosophy will be the text of choice for any student or philosopher who wants a philosophically sophisticated survey of the major topics that, at the same time, makes clear the continuing attraction of the natural law tradition."
Brian Leiter, University of Texas at Austin <!––end––>

"Murphy executes a masterly and enlightening challenge to fashionable claims that all is not well with the law and its philosophy. Fully accessible to general audiences, his book will also inform and engage the specialist reader."
William A. Edmundson, Georgia State University

"Philosophy of Law itself is a well designed book on several levels ... Murphy hooks you from the start."
Stuart Hannabuss, Aberdeen Buisness School, Robert Gordon University

A concise, well balanced, and articulate discussion. The author has the capacity to present complex material with ease to its audience A highly captivating interpretation of the philosophy of law
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