Philosophy of Law: The Fundamentals

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.