Philosophical Foundations of the Nature of Law

In recent years we have witnessed major developments in philosophical inquiry concerning the nature of law and, with the continuing development of international and transnational legal institutions, in the phenomenon of law itself. This volume gathers leading writers in the field to take stock of current debates on the nature of law and the aims and methods of legal philosophy. The volume covers four broad themes. The essays within the first theme address and develop the traditional debates between legal positivism, natural law theory, and Dworkinian interpretivism. Papers within the second theme focus on the power of coercion, often overlooked in contemporary legal philosophy. The third set of papers addresses the aims and methods of legal theory, and the role of conceptual analysis. The final section explores new methods and issues in the subject, and offers fresh starting points for future work in the field. Gathering many leading and up-and-coming writers in the subject, the volume offers a snapshot of the best current work in general jurisprudence.

Wil Waluchow is a Professor in McMaster's Department of Philosophy, the Senator William McMaster Chair in Constitutional Studies, and an Adjunct Member of the Graduate Faculty of Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto. His BA and MA in philosophy are from the University of Western Ontario (Huron University College) and his DPhil in the philosophy of law is from Oxford University, where he studied under the supervision of H.L.A. Hart. His current research interests are in general jurisprudence and the philosophy of constitutional law. He is the author of numerous books, including Inclusive Legal Positivism (OUP, 1994) and A Common Law Theory of Judicial Review: The Living Tree (CUP, 2007).

Stefan Sciaraffa is Assistant Professor in McMaster's Department of Philosophy. He specializes in the philosophy of law and social, moral and political philosophy. He received a J.D. from the University of Texas and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Arizona. He practiced law as an associate with the commercial litigation section of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP.

Part I. Furthering Debate Between the Leading Theories of Law
1. The Explanatory Indispensability of Weak Natural Law Theory, Mark C. Murphy
2. In Defense of Hart, Matthew Kramer
3. Law's Authority Is Not a Claim to Preemption, Kenneth Ehrenberg
4. The Normative Fallacy Regarding Law's Authority and Its Significance to Legal Philosophy, Arie Rosen
5. The Nature of Law and Legal Rationality: Towards an Integrative Jurisprudence, Imer Flores
Part II. The Power of Legal Systems
6. Law as Power: Two Rules of Law Requirements, Bruno Celano
7. Hart and Austin Together Again for the First Time: Coercive Enforcement and the Theory of Legal Obligation, Ken Himma
8. Law and the Entitlement to Coerce, Robert Hughes
Part III. Conceptual Analysis
9. Farewell to Conceptual Analysis (in Jurisprudence), Andrei Marmor
10. What Do We Want Law to Be? Philosophical Analysis and the Concept of Law, Natalie Stoljar
Part IV. New Directions
11. Legal as a Thick Concept, David Enoch and Kevin Toh
12. Making Old Questions New: Law, Legal System, and State, Keith Culver and Michael Giudice
13. Legal Disagreements and the Dual Nature of Law, Giovanni Battista Ratti and Andrea Dolcetti
14. One Right Answer? The Meta Edition, Dan Priel