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This book offers a conceptual reconstruction of the legal relation on the basis of a critique of legal positivism.
List of contents
Introduction. The pursuit of theory; 1. Late legal positivism; 2. Legality and irony; 3. Legal science and the common law; 4. The legal relation; 5. Equality, freedom and dignity; 6. The quest for agency.
About the author
Alexander Somek is Professor of Legal Philosophy at Universität Wien, Austria and Global Affiliated Professor of Law at the University of Iowa, where he previously held the position of the Charles E. Floete Chair in Law. He has been a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin, a LAPA fellow, and visiting professor at Princeton University, New Jersey, and at the London School of Economics. He is the author of eleven books.
Summary
The law is a way of relating to one another. In a legal context, we expect to have our claims respected simply because we have a legal right. This book offers a conceptual reconstruction of the legal relation on the basis of a critique of legal positivism.
Report
'Alexander Somek, at the height of his powers, has already enjoyed a long and distinguished career. He is, unlike most of us, altogether at home in both worlds - the Anglophone world with its myopia and the Continental European world with its vast perspectives but, all too often, with analysis that falls short of the mark. Alexander Somek brings the best of both worlds together, and his manuscript is a welcome effort to redress the balance in favor of, as he puts it, a post-legal positivist theory of law.' Stanley L. Paulson, Washington University, St. Louis
