Jurisprudence
Author(s): Suri Ratnapala (Author)
- Publisher: Cambridge University Press
- Publication Date: 4 Jun. 2009
- Edition: 1st
- Language: English
- Print length: 390 pages
- ISBN-10: 052161483X
- ISBN-13: 9780521614832
Book Description
Jurisprudence is about the nature of law and justice. It embraces studies and theories from a range of disciplines such as history, sociology, political science, philosophy, psychology and even economics. Why do people obey the law? How does law serve society? What is law’s relation to morality? What is the nature of rights? This book introduces and critically discusses the major traditions of jurisprudence. Written in a lucid and accessible style, Suri Ratnapala considers a wide range of views, bringing conceptual clarity to the debates at hand. From Plato and Aristotle to the medieval scholastics, from Enlightenment thinkers to postmodernists and economic analysts of law, this important volume examines the great philosophical debates and gives insight into the central questions concerning law and justice.
Editorial Reviews
Review
‘Professor Ratnapala’s book … [provides] … an accessible overview of the various schools of thought, and of their place in the history of ideas, while also identifying, with a respectfully light touch, the deficiencies in the effort of each school to explain what it is that the courts are doing and why they are doing it. Professor Ratnapala’s wide-ranging survey provides a comprehensive study of all the schools of jurisprudence, while at the same time avoiding the temptation to accord some of these schools only a superficial treatment. It will be a useful book for students and for practising lawyers interested in knowing what the students are banging on about. Hopefully, that means all of us. Speaking for myself again, I particularly appreciated the gentle but effective discussion of the place of the school of critical legal studies in the jurisprudential firmament.’ Hon. Justice Patrick Keane, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court of Queensland
Book Description
The book provides a wide ranging, in-depth but accessible account of the major traditions in jurisprudence.
About the Author
Suri Ratnapala is Professor of Public Law at the University of Queensland.
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