BOOK: Kyritsis on Courts and Legislatures in Legal Theory

Shared Authority

Courts and Legislatures in Legal Theory                  

Dimitrios Kyritsis                     

This new book advances a fresh philosophical account of the relationship between the legislature and courts, opposing the common conception of law, in which it is legislatures that primarily create the law, and courts that primarily apply it. This conception has eclectic affinities with legal positivism, and although it may have been a helpful intellectual tool in the past, it now increasingly generates more problems than it solves. For this reason, the author argues, legal philosophers are better off abandoning it. At the same time they are asked to dismantle the philosophical and doctrinal infrastructure that has been based on it and which has been hitherto largely unquestioned. The book offers an alternative framework for understanding the role of courts and the legislature; a framework which is distinctly anti-positivist and which builds on Ronald Dworkin's interpretive theory of law. But, contrary to Dworkin, it insists that legal duty is sensitive to the position one occupies in the project of governing; legal interpretation is not the solitary task of one super-judge, but a collaborative task structured by principles of institutional morality such as separation of powers which impose a moral duty on participants to respect each other's contributions. Moreover this collaborative task will often involve citizens taking an active role in their interaction with the law.

THE AUTHOR

Dimitrios Kyritsis is an Associate Professor at the University of Reading.

BOOK DETAILS

January 2015   9781849463898   195pp   Hbk   RSP: £50 / US$100

Discount Price: £40 / US$80

Order Online in the US
If you would like to place an order you can do so through the Hart Publishing website (link below). To receive the discount please mention reference ‘JDB’ in the special instructions field. Please note that the discount will not be shown on your order but will be applied when your order is processed.

US: http://www.hartpublishingusa.com/books/details.asp?ISBN=9781849463898

 Order Online in the UK, EU and ROW

If you would like to place an order you can do so through the Hart Publishing website (link below). To receive the discount please type the reference ‘JDB’ in the discount code field and click ‘apply’.

UK, EU and ROW: http://www.hartpub.co.uk/BookDetails.aspx?ISBN=9781849463898