The Concept of Law

Product Description

Fifty years on from its original publication, HLA Hart’s The Concept of Law is widely recognized as the most important work of legal philosophy published in the twentieth century, and remains the starting point for most students coming to the subject for the first time.

In this third edition, Leslie Green provides a new introduction that sets the book in the context of subsequent developments in social and political philosophy, clarifying misunderstandings of Hart’s project and highlighting central tensions and problems in the work.

• Leslie Green: Introduction
• Persistent Questions
• Laws, Commands, and Orders
• The Variety of Laws
• Sovereign and Subject
• Law as the Union of Primary and Secondary Rules
• The Foundations of a Legal System
• Formalism and Rule-Scepticism
• Justice and Morality
• Laws and Morals
• International Law

Key Features

• Features an introduction by Leslie Green, clarifying misunderstandings of Hart’s project and setting the work in the context of modern social and political theory
• Includes updated notes and references, allowing students to follow developments in subsequent literature
• Retains the pagination of the second edition, allowing references to be followed

Includes Hart’s Postscript from the Second Edition