Law and legal theory in England and America /

Posner (Chief Justice of the US Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit) here revises his 1995 Clarendon Law Lectures. In the first, he compares H.L.A. Hart and Ronald Dworkin, focusing on the ongoing debate over the law-politics distinction. Posner argues the "anti-essentialist" case: attempts to provide a universal definition of "law" are misguided. The second essay, a comparative analysis of English and American law in the area of torts and contracts, will be of particular interest to those concerned with the application of economic principles to legal reasoning. The third essay, also a brief comparative analysis, examines how the English and American legal systems operate. To those keen to reform the English legal system, Posner counsels caution. He finds many present-day proposals superficial; reformers often fail to consider adequately the "system-wide impact" of the proposals. Posner's initial conception of these lectures was an attempt to construct a "theory of legal culture." The lectures mark only the beginning of this task. They are both thought-provoking and valuable beginnings for scholarly research. Of particular value are Posner's tentative speculations on the centrality of the idea of deference in explaining the differences between the two legal cultures. Essential for law libraries; highly recommended for libraries building strong senior undergraduate and graduate collections in political science and philosophy of law. P. N. Malcolmson; St. Thomas University