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Neil MacCormick (1941-2009) was one of the twentieth century's most important legal philosophers and one of Scotland's most influential public intellectuals. This book tells the story of his political and philosophical life, from his intensely political childhood as the son of 'King John', one of the founders of the Scottish National Party, through to his involvement in Scottish politics - especially as the author of SNP's constitutional policy - and his role as a Member of the European Parliament, helping to draft the European Constitution. With special attention to MacCormick's character, this book offers a reading of his entire oeuvre, covering his contributions to theories of legal and moral reasoning, institutional legal theory, nationalism, post-sovereignty, subsidiarity, and constitutional pluralism in Europe. This book reads MacCormick as a highly creative thinker who excelled in the art of constructing inclusive middles and thereby developed his own distinctive approach to politics and philosophy.
List of contents
Introduction: reading with character; 1. Scottish home rule: a political childhood in Glasgow; 2. A land of many tongues: language, self, and community; 3. A democratic intellect: the making of a Glaswegian moral philosopher; 4. A Scot in Oxford: law and politics in England and America; 5. 'Taking it to Hart': protest, authority, and the morality of law; 6. A jurist in search of good government: law, liberty, and justice; 7. A philosophically credible nationalism? Constitutional change in Scotland; 8. European futures: post-sovereignty, subsidiarity, and constitutional pluralism; 9. The relational life of institutional legal theory; 10. Reason, philosophy, character: a matter of civility; epilogue: death and character; Neil MacCormick: a bibliography; General bibliography.
