Legal Reasoning, Legal Theory and Rights

Martin P. Golding is Professor of Philosophy and Law at Duke University, USA.

Contents: Introduction; My philosophy of law; Part 1 Legal Reasoning: Principled decision-making and the Supreme Court; A note on discovery and justification in science and law; The logical force of arguments by analogy in common law reasoning; Aesthetics and legal reasoning: a strand in American legal thought; Preliminaries to the study of procedural justice; Substantive interpretation and common law elaboration; The legal analog of the principle of bivalence. Part 2 Legal Theories; Jurisprudence and legal philosophy in 20th century America - major themes and developments; Kelsen and the concept of 'legal system'; Holmes's jurisprudence: aspects of its development and continuity; Retroactive legislation and restoration of the rule of law; The cultural defense; Responsibility; Faux pas. Part 3 Rights: Towards a theory of human rights; Obligations to future generations; The significance of rights language; The primacy of welfare rights; Rights, performatives, and promises in Karl Olivecrona's legal theory; Name index.