First published 1990
Richard Posner rejects the dominant philosophical camps that have shaped legal thinking for two millennia. He dismisses both the formalist view that law transcends politics and yields correct answers through skilled interpretation, and the nihilistic position that law equals pure politics with arbitrary judicial power. Instead, Posner advocates for pragmatic jurisprudence that prioritizes empirical facts over abstract theories. He argues that laws function as social tools designed to guide behavior according to societal values, not sacred principles. Posner examines how judges actually make tough decisions, showing they rely on informal reasoning methods rather than pure logic or science. He points to legal giants like Robert Jackson, who never attended law school, and Benjamin Cardozo, who left before graduating, as proof that traditional legal training matters less than broader knowledge. The book surveys jurisprudential figures from Antigone to Ronald Dworkin and analyzes contemporary movements including law and economics, civic republicanism, feminism, and libertarianism. Posner calls for law to abandon insularity and embrace all forms of knowledge as useful material for legal reasoning.
Genres: philosophy, american, political-science, non-fiction, law, academic
Vibes: thought-provoking
Tropes: academic
512 pages · Hardcover · Harvard University Press