Analytic Jurisprudence Established

Abstract:     
“Analytic Jurisprudence Established” is Chapter 1 of Legal Philosophy in the Twentieth Century: The Common Law World (Springer, 2001). The book tells a critical history of Anglophone general jurisprudence and legal philosophy in the twentieth century as a tale of two Boston lectures, separated by sixty years, and their respective legacies: Holmes’s “Path of Law” (1897) and Hart’s Holmes Lecture “Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals” (1958). This opening chapter sketches the developments of British jurisprudence from Austinians in the late nineteenth century through Salmond to Glanville Williams in the mid-twentieth century. In this remarkable story, most of the familiar doctrines elegantly articulated and defended in Hart’s Concept of Law are anticipated, including his pivotal doctrine of the rule of recognition. Also in this period we find roots of the distinctive methodological commitments of analytic jurisprudence evident throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, along with searching critiques of them. It is a story of surprisingly rich ideas in embryo that matured only with debates over Hart’s seminal work in the last third of the century. Bibliographical references are available upon request of the author.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 37

Keywords: Analytic Jurisprudence, Austin, Dicey, Hart, Positivism, Oakeshott, Salmond, Sovereignty, Rule of Recognition

Accepted Paper Series