Brian Leiter's Legal Philosophy Blog

A Generous Review of "Naturalizing Jurisprudence" in Mind by...

...Veronica Rodriguez-Blanco, a legal philosopher at the University of Birmingham.  The review is here (I think this should be accessible even if you are not viewing it from a computer at a university that does not subscribe).  Here is the first paragraph of the review:

More than ten years ago, Leiter advanced the idea that Quinean naturalism could shed light on important and pressing issues in jurisprudence. Leiter’s research aims to answer three core questions within the framework of naturalism:  what the American Legal Realists were trying to convey, what is the most appropriate methodology to apply to future inquiries in legal philosophy, and whether legal and moral facts should have a place in our best explanatory account of law. Naturalised jurisprudence brought fresh, fruitful, and powerful ways of thinking in legal philosophy. It obliged us to rethink the self-image of legal philosophy and its location in the wider spectrum of epistemology, philosophy of language and mind, metaethics, and morality. The collection of essays is, then, the reflection of a thoughtful, insightful, and influential body of work. It comprises nine previously published essays and two unpublished postscripts to the essays. It is a superb contribution because of its rigorous scholarship and honest analysis.

And the last:"Leiter’s collection is a sophisticated and creative view on naturalism in legal philosophy marking a tour de force in jurisprudential thinking. It raises fundamental challenges to non-naturalist jurisprudence that, in my view, cannot be ignored if legal philosophers are to ensure disciplinary progress."

And now you can rush out and buy a copy (in paperback I should add) here!

Spaak Reviews Me

Larry Solum (Illinois) kindly flagged for me that Torben Spaak, on the law faculty at Uppsala University in Sweden, has posted a review essay about my Naturalizing Jurisprudence collection.  I have just read through it quickly (as I'm heading out of town), but it seems a fair-minded engagement with my book (for which I thank Professor Spaak), and particularly interesting because of its contention that the Scandinavian Realists are the naturalists in jurisprudence to whom we should really pay heed.   (I've suggested previously that the Scandinavians demand more sympathetic attention, so I welcome his suggestion, though I'm not sure he is entirely sensitive, at least in this review essay, to the worries about the viability of their position.)  One small point:  Professor Spaak is mistaken in suggesting (at p. 3) that I think causal explanations rule out reason-based explanations.  I am, as I say at p. 4, a "relaxed" naturalist, meaning whatever works makes it into our ontology.  The Hempel/Dray debate Professor Spaak references is ancient history as far as genuinely methodological naturalism is concerned. 

Because I am on the road currently, comments (if there are any) may take longer than usual to appear.

New: Oxford Studies in the Philosophy of Law

I am very pleased to announce that Leslie Green and I will be editing a new annual, the Oxford Studies in the Philosophy of Law, which will publish commissioned and solicited work by leading established and emerging scholars in the philosophy of law. The first volume will appear in 2009, and all volumes will appear in both cloth and paperback. OSPL will be part of the distinguished Oxford Studies series, including existing volumes in Ancient Philosophy, Early Modern Philosophy, Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Metaethics.

The OSPL will include a broad range of problems and approaches, such as work in general jurisprudence, in the philosophical foundations of areas of substantive law, and in cognate areas of philosophy.  Both systematic essays and historical studies will be welcome.

All papers, including commissioned works, will be subject to review by the editors and by external referees. Oxford Studies in the Philosophy of Law will showcase the best new work in this growing field.

(Given this new project, I should note that I will be stepping down after seven years as an editor of Legal Theory.)

"Objectivity in Law and Morals" in Paperback

Cambridge has, happily, released a paperback version of this collection of essays I edited back in 2001.  Since I periodically get inquiries about the book, I thought I'd post the information about the new paperback edition here.