More Essays in Legal Philosophy: General Assessments of Legal Philosophies

The papers collected in this companion volume to Professor Summers' "Essays in Legal Philosophy" have a common theme in that they all offer a general assessment of a major thinker in the history of legal philosophy. The address themselves to questions such as the following: What is the nature of Bentham's critique of law, and what are its limits? How might Dean Pound's main contributions to jurisprudence be characterized and evaluated? What criticisms may be made of Hans Kelsen's concept of a legal system? Is Professor Lon L. Fuller's theory of "technological" natural law viable? What are the strengths and weaknesses of Professor H. L. A. Hart's analysis of law as a "union of primary and secondary rules"? The essays reflect a more or less distinctive set of critical standards and points of view characteristic of modern analytical philosophy. These standards and points of view as applied to law are themselves worthy of careful study, and the editor's extended introduction has been prepared with precisely this possibility in mind. The essays should prove of interest to students and professionals in the fields of law, philosophy and the social sciences.