In this reprint of Law's Empire,Ronald Dworkin reflects on the nature of the law, its given authority, its application in democracy, the prominent role of interpretation in judgement, and the relations of lawmakers and lawgivers to the community on whose behalf they pronounce. For that community, Law's Empire provides a judicious and coherent introduction to the place of law in our lives.Previously Published by Harper Collins. Reprinted (1998) by Hart Publishing.

In this famous treatise, a Supreme Court Justice describes the conscious and unconscious processes by which a judge decides a case. He discusses the sources of information to which he appeals for guidance and analyzes the contribution that considerations of precedent, logical consistency, custom, social welfare, and standards of justice and morals have in shaping his decisions.

Required reading at more than 100 colleges and universities throughout North America.

Is there, today," asks Jacques Derrida, "another 'question of religion'?" Derrida's writings on religion situate and raise anew questions of tradition, faith, and sacredness and their relation to philosophy and political culture. He has amply testified to his growing up in an Algerian Jewish, French-speaking family, to the complex impact of a certain Christianity on his surroundings and himself, and to his being deeply affected by religious persecution. Religion has made demands on Derrida, and, in turn, the study of religion (...) has benefited greatly from his extensive philosophical contributions to the field. Acts of Religion brings together for the first time Derrida's key writings on religion, along with two new essays translated by Gil Anidjar that appear here for the first time in any language. These texts are organized around the secret holding of links between the personal, the political, and the theological. In these texts, Derrida's reflections on religion span from negative theologyto the limits of reason and to hospitality. Acts of Religion will serve as an excellent introduction to Derrida's remarkable contribution to religious studies. (shrink)

After a brief explanation of my approach, this paper questions the foundations of a phenomenological theory of law, deploying the argument in three steps.In a first step I reconstruct the connection between Anspruchand Anrecht as developed in Waldenfels’ paradigm of responsiveness. Can law be characterised as an order that is able to ‘respond’ in this specific sense?The second step confronts the radical perspective of a phenomenology of the alien with the question of order. Can a theory of order characterise law (...) as ‘just,’ given that modern positive law is explicitly contained in and founded on itself? In a third step I review the boundaries of law. Would a phenomenology of law acknowledge law as a dimension that – inside the boundaries of law as order – is structurally able to react to the alien and to respond to alien appeals? The overall answer to these questions will be negative.A phenomenology of the alien will not surmount the boundaries inherent to the legal order as order – which push- es the question of justice to the outer limits of the law. The question of the alien, then, does not refer to questions within law; rather, it refers to the problem of juridification or to the sacrifices to be made to obtain access to rights. Decisive is the step into the realm of law, not a certain rule or a decision within thatrealm.If one is to pursue the phenomenological viewpoint of the alien and the dual theme of Anspruch and Antwort, legal phenomena should be considered from the problem of order – in a critical vein to be sure. (shrink)

Une critique de la modernité qui cherche à en sauver (reformuler)) l'idée puisque "le sujet ne peut pas se dissoudre dans la post-modernité". L'auteur rappelle d'abord le triomphe des conceptions rationalistes de la modernité. Puis il suit la destruction de cette idée de la modernité, dans la pensée et les pratiques sociales. Dans une troisième partie, qui peut se lire en premier, l'auteur présente ses idées sur la modernité comme relation tendue entre la Raison et le Sujet, la rationalisation et (...) la subjectivation, entre l'esprit de la Renaissance et celui de la Réforme, la science et la liberté (cf. la présentation très claire et accessible, p. 11-17). (shrink)

Discusses the theory of social atomism, individual rights, majority rule, government representation, justice, punishment, and freedom.

According to the classical paradigm of the judicial act, the courthouse is a temple and the hearing is a ceremony. Even when secularized, justice rests upon a ritual and a ceremonial which confer on it both its sacredness and its authority. The origins of this staging are rooted in myth, religion and cosmogony which stem from the mediation of symbols. Through this ornamentation, the paternal figure is made present and guarantees, in a kind of irrational way, the authority of the (...) institution. Since the mid nineties, the judicial institution has been emancipated from its staging. The modern goals of functionality and transparency of public services have progressively led to the abandoning of the sacredness of the judicial act, thus threatening its symbolic function. The purpose of this contribution is to highlight, through a semiotic approach, the dialectic opposing modernity and the authority of the judicial institution. (shrink)