On Law and Justice
Alf Ross and Jakob v. H. Holtermann
Abstract
This book is a classic work of twentieth-century legal philosophy. The first translation into English was notably poor and misrepresented the views expressed in the text. Translated from scratch from the original Danish, this new critical edition casts light on the work and resituates it firmly in the context of current debates in the field. In recent years, Alf Ross (1899–1979) has attracted increasing attention. In H. L. A. Hart’s words, he was ‘the most acute and best-equipped philosopher’ of Scandinavian legal realism. This book provides a comprehensive outline of Ross’s legal realist posi ... More
This book is a classic work of twentieth-century legal philosophy. The first translation into English was notably poor and misrepresented the views expressed in the text. Translated from scratch from the original Danish, this new critical edition casts light on the work and resituates it firmly in the context of current debates in the field. In recent years, Alf Ross (1899–1979) has attracted increasing attention. In H. L. A. Hart’s words, he was ‘the most acute and best-equipped philosopher’ of Scandinavian legal realism. This book provides a comprehensive outline of Ross’s legal realist position, outlining a consistently empirical research programme that simultaneously recognizes the distinctly normative character of law. On the basis of a sophisticated analysis of the concept ‘scientifically valid law’, Ross’s legal realism avoids the standard critiques against behaviourist reductionism while still remaining categorically distinct from legal positivism and natural law.
Keywords:
legal philosophy,
legal realism,
empirical legal research,
legal positivism,
natural law,
logical empiricism,
scientifically valid law
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2019 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198716105 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2020 |
DOI:10.1093/oso/9780198716105.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Alf Ross, author
(1899-1979) was a Danish legal and moral philosopher and scholar of international law
Jakob v. H. Holtermann, editor
University of Copenhagen
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