Essays in Jurisprudence and Philosophy

The essays selected by Professor Hart for this volume were written in the twenty-eight years following his inaugural lecture in 1953 as Professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford. Originally published in England, the United States, and elsewhere, in many different journals and books, these essays cover a wide range of topics. They include Professor Hart's first attempt to demonstrate the relevance of linguistic philosophy to jurisprudence, and his first defence of the form of legal positivism later developed in his Concept of Law; his studies of the distinctive teaching of American and Scandinavian jurisprudence; a general survey of the problems of legal philosophy; and an examination of three different attempts to provide a foundation for basic human rights or liberties, and of the notion of 'social solidarity' as a justification for the enforcement of conventional morality. Five of the essays are devoted to the work of Jhering, Kelsen, Holmes, and Lon Fuller. The final essay brings a philosophical distinction to bear on the solution to a perplexity which has long plagued lawyers, concerning the notion of an attempt to commit a crime.

H. L. A. Hart was formerly Professor of Jurisprudence in the University of Oxford