Weaving together theoretical, historical, and legal approaches, this book offers a fresh perspective on the concept of allegiance and its revival in recent times, identifying and contextualising its evolving association with theories of citizenship. The book explores how allegiance was historically owed in return for the sovereign's protection but has been redeployed by modern governments to justify the withdrawal of protection. It examines allegiance from multiple perspectives, including laws for the revocation of citizenship, new ideas of citizenship education, the doctrine of treason, oaths of allegiance, naturalisation tests, and theories of belonging. This thought-provoking book ultimately finds allegiance to be a feudal concept that is inappropriate in the liberal democratic state, and is misplaced, even dangerous, in its association with modern citizenship. Rejecting allegiance, but reaching a constructive resolution, it explores modern alternatives to describe the bond between citizens, advancing a new perspective on the 'enigma' of belonging. With its carefully constructed analysis, this work will prove pivotal in furthering our understanding of allegiance and citizenship. Its legal-theoretical account of a complex and under-theorised concept make it valuable reading for legal and political theorists, legal historians, and scholars of citizenship, law, and social politics.

This timely book considers the ways in which international law, unlike domestic law, does not make itself known in a formalized, hierarchical structure, but needs to be conceptually (re)constructed by the participants and observers, out of a variety of practices and other elements. It explores such constructions, as well as how these images can be deconstructed and reconstructed. Bringing together contributions from expert scholars from a range of disciplines, from philosophy to international law scholars and practitioners, this book contrasts constructive, deconstructive and reconstructive perspectives of international law. Discussions on the topics are encouraged by eliciting responses from contributors on each other's work. Throughout the book, chapters provide complementary views of key international legal concepts such as custom, legal interpretation, authority and sovereignty. Providing a framework that gives room to different disciplines, Conceptual (Re)Constructions of International Law will be a key resource for practitioners as well as scholars in the fields of legal philosophy, (international) legal theory and public international law.

What does it mean to understand the law? This challenging book discusses whether and how understanding the law is qualitatively different from understanding a different, non-legal text or linguistic utterance, and whether knowledge of a language is sufficient to understand legal content in that language. Providing a comprehensive overview of current studies of interpretivism, both in the common and civil law systems, this book applies state of the art theories and tools of modern philosophy of language to shed new light on traditional questions in legal theory. Chapters discuss the normative importance and descriptive impact of moral inferences in legal interpretation and critically analyse the claims of legal interpretivism, uncovering the most recent versions of legal positivism. The impressive selection of leading contributors explore an array of important topics including metaethics, expressivism and legal semantics. Outlining a new direction of study and delineating the path for future research on moral inferences in legal interpretation, this timely book will be a thought-provoking read for legal scholars and students interested in legal theory, philosophy and interpretation.

This stimulating book considers the ways in which historical jurisprudence deserves to be rethought, arguing that there is much more to the history of legal thought than the ideas, and ideology, of the nineteenth and early twentieth century jurists, such as Karl von Savigny and Sir Henry Maine. In doing so, Geoffrey Samuel looks at the history of legal thought, method and reasoning from the position of three questions that will help readers to reflect on the nature of legal knowledge. First, what has legal knowledge been in the past? Secondly, taking a cue from the work of Thomas Kuhn, have there been scientific revolutions in the history of law? Thirdly, do jurists today know more about law as a body of knowledge than jurists of the past? In other words, does the history of law reveal a body of cumulative knowledge? This nuanced book shows how, in re-examining legal knowledge from a diachronic perspective, historical jurisprudence can be rethought as a domain concerned with contemporary legal epistemology. Ambitious in its scope, Rethinking Historical Jurisprudence will be a key resource for students and scholars in the fields of legal philosophy, legal theory and history and research methods in law.

This cutting-edge book facilitates debate amongst scholars in law, humanities and social sciences, where comparative methodology is far less well anchored in most areas compared to other research methods. It posits that these are disciplines in which comparative research is not simply a bonus, but is of the essence. Featuring discussions and reflections from scholars experienced in conducting comparative research, this book considers the ways in which comparative legal research can gain important comparative, qualitative and interpretive insights from the humanities and from the social sciences. Chapters examine contrasting comparative legal versus historical approaches, comparative sociology, comparative religion, comparative (legal) anthropology, comparative philosophy, comparative economics and more. Additionally, the book considers the challenges that lie ahead, not just for comparative legal research, but for comparative disciplines as a whole. Of the many challenges that are identified and discussed, the book concludes that comparative research can especially be further developed when it is also understood as a research design, instead of just a method. Inspiring and progressive, this book will be a crucial reference point for both research students and experienced researchers who are embarking on comparative research within the disciplines of law, humanities and social sciences.

How might law address the multiple crises of meaning intrinsic to global crises of climate, poverty, mass displacements, ecological breakdown, species extinctions and technological developments that increasingly complicate the very notion of 'life' itself? How can law embrace - in other words -the 'posthuman' condition - a condition in which non-human forces such as climate change and Covid-19 signal the impossibility of clinging to the existing imaginaries of Western legal systems and international law? This carefully curated book addresses these and related questions, bringing 'law beyond the human' (drawing on Indigenous legalities, life ways and ontologies) and New Materialist and Posthuman/ist approaches into stimulating proximity to each other. Bold and astute, it draws an invigorating and lively mix of participants into its conversation: soils, urban animals, rivers, rights, Indigenous legalities, property as habitat, swarms, 'unusual posthuman capacities', decolonial critiques, eco-feedback, arts, affective encounters and more besides. Ultimately, this pivotal work shows how law currently fails to respond to the challenges and realities it faces, while demonstrating that law can also be a co-emergence of 'something else', more responsive, relational and prefigurative. Lively and engaging, Posthuman Legalities will prove an imperative read for students and scholars with a keen interest in breaking down barriers to address emerging challenges in environmental law, climate law, and human rights law, in conversation with new approaches to planetary justice.

This unique book provides a versatile exploration of the philosophical foundations of the insanity defense. It examines the connections between numerous philosophical-anthropological views and analyses different methods for regulating the criminal responsibility of the mentally ill. Placing its philosophical analysis firmly in the context of science, it draws on the fields of cognitive psychology, evolutionary theory and criminology. In this thought-provoking book, Wojciech Zaluski argues that the way in which we resolve the problem of the criminal responsibility of the mentally ill depends on two factors: the assumed conception of responsibility and the account of mental illness. Offering a systematic and in-depth analysis of the influence of anti-psychiatry on thinking about the insanity defense and legislation, the author invokes the personalist view of human nature, being rational and endowed with free will, to justify an original normative proposal concerning the construction of the insanity defense. The Insanity Defense will be of primary interest to scholars of criminal law and justice, legal theory and legal philosophy as well as legal practitioners, policy makers, psychiatrists and psychologists engaged with this topic.

Providing a comprehensive account of the often-misunderstood area of legal doctrinal scholarship, this incisive book offers a novel framing for conceptual legal theory and the functions of conceptual theorising in legal studies. It explores the ways in which a doctrinally-oriented legal theory may provide methodological support to legal scholars, arguing that making adequate sense of the rational reconstruction of law is pivotal in delivering such active support. The epistemological key to the central themes of the book is the idea that doctrinal disciplines are anchored in the concept of 'doctrinal knowledge', the practice-specific normative knowledge used to navigate institutionalised social practices. The distinctive epistemological and political philosophical grounding for legal doctrinal scholarship demonstrated in this book facilitates a rich analysis of the three core models of interdisciplinary engagement characteristic of legal scholarship. Considering how legal doctrinal scholarship cultivates doctrinal knowledge by way of hermeneutic engagement with positive law, this thought-provoking book will be a key resource for students and scholars of constitutional law, criminal law, private law and international law. It will also be of benefit to legal theorists, philosophers and practitioners.

This illuminating Research Handbook analyses the role that emotions play, and ought to play, in legal reasoning and practice, rejecting the simplistic distinction between reason and emotion. International expert contributors take multidisciplinary approaches, drawing on neuroscience, philosophy, literary theory, psychology, history, and sociology to examine the role of a wide range of emotions across a variety of legal contexts. Chapters consider how the rich tapestry of human emotion impacts legal actors, influences legal doctrine, and shapes the dynamics of legal institutions. Moving beyond legal contexts traditionally considered rife with emotion such as the criminal law and jury trials, the Handbook explores how emotion relates to contracts, property, bankruptcy, international law, and truth and reconciliation commissions. It also reflects on the importance of research methodologies, theories, and techniques for assessing the role of emotion in the legal arena. Surveying the depth and complexity of law and emotion across a panoply of legal actions, institutional contexts, and legal doctrines, this Handbook will be critical reading for academics and students of legal theory and legal philosophy. Its detailed examination of emotions in the practice of private, public, international, and criminal law will also be beneficial for legal officials and practitioners.

Inspired by Antonio Truyol Y Serra's classic work, Doctrines sur le fondement du Droit des gens, this book offers a fully revised and updated examination and discussion of the various doctrines forming the foundations of international law. It offers an accessible insight into the theoretical background of the various legal constructions that characterize the relationship between both international and national legal orders. Written in a clear style, the book's structured chapters provide a comprehensive analysis of the various foundations of obligation in international law: natural law, positivism and sociologism. Through this study, Robert Kolb illustrates how international law has been conceived and shaped over time in relation to its evolving historical and legal-political environment. Split into seven substantive parts, this text is one of the most detailed expositions of the doctrines of international law in the English language to date. Astute and engaging, Robert Kolb's take on Truyol y Serra's Doctrines sur le fondement du Droit des gens will appeal to students and scholars of international law, as well as to practitioners interested in gaining a further grounding with regards to the basis of obligation in international law.

This insightful book offers an in-depth examination of whether, and if so how and to what degree, contemporary international law can and should conform to and develop the rule of law principle. Motivated by the neglect of conceptual and normative theorizing of the international rule of law within contemporary international legal scholarship, Denise Wohlwend analyses the moral and legal principle of the rule of law in the international legal order. The book draws on the tradition of analytical jurisprudence to explore the possibility and desirability of the international rule of law. Encompassing both international and domestic legal orders, the book advocates for a shift in the way the international rule of law is theorized, endorsing an approach that understands it as beneficial to individuals and as closely related to the domestic rule of law. This will be an invigorating read for legal scholars who deal with the international rule of law, whether at the level of positive law or legal theory. Representatives of international institutions, non-governmental organizations and policy-makers interested in the policy debate on the development and the strengthening of the international rule of law may also find this a useful book.

Inspired by Antonio Truyol Y Serra's classic work, Doctrines sur le fondement du Droit des gens, this book offers a fully revised and updated examination and discussion of the various doctrines forming the foundations of international law. It offers an accessible insight into the theoretical background of the various legal constructions that characterize the relationship between both international and national legal orders. Written in a clear style, the book's structured chapters provide a comprehensive analysis of the various foundations of obligation in international law: natural law, positivism and sociologism. Through this study, Robert Kolb illustrates how international law has been conceived and shaped over time in relation to its evolving historical and legal-political environment. Split into seven substantive parts, this text is one of the most detailed expositions of the doctrines of international law in the English language to date. Astute and engaging, Robert Kolb's take on Truyol y Serra's Doctrines sur le fondement du Droit des gens will appeal to students and scholars of international law, as well as to practitioners interested in gaining a further grounding with regards to the basis of obligation in international law.

?'Rethinking?' legal reasoning seems a bold aim given the large amount of literature devoted to this topic. In this thought-provoking book, Geoffrey Samuel proposes a different way of approaching legal reasoning by examining the topic through the context of legal knowledge (epistemology). What is it to have knowledge of legal reasoning? At a more specific level the pursuit of this understanding is conducted through posing a number of questions that are founded on different approaches. What has legal reasoning been? What are the institutional and conceptual legacies of this history? What is the literature and textual heritage? How does it compare with medical reasoning and with reasoning in the humanities? Can it be demystified? In exploring these questions Samuel suggests a number of frameworks that offer some new insights into the nature of legal reasoning. The author also puts forward two key ideas. First, that the legal notion of an '?interest?' might perhaps be a very suitable artefact for rethinking legal reasoning; and, secondly, that fiction theory might be the most viable ?'epistemological attitude?' for understanding, if not rethinking, reasoning in law. This book will be of great interest to academics who are researching legal method and legal reasoning, as well as epistemology of the social sciences and aspects of comparative law. It will also be an insightful text for those interested in legal history and historical perspectives on legal reasoning.

Inspiring and distinctive, After Meaning provides a radical challenge to the way in which international law is thought and practised. Jean d'Aspremont asserts that the words and texts of international law, as forms, never carry or deliver meaning but, instead, perpetually defer meaning and ensure it is nowhere found within international legal discourse. In challenging the dominant meaning-centrism of the international legal discourse and shedding light on the sovereignty of forms, this book promotes a radical new attitude towards textuality in international law. The author offers new perspectives on interpretation, critique, history, comparison, translation and referencing, inviting international lawyers to reinvent their engagement with these discourses. Chapters define meaning and form in international law, explore deferral of meaning and make an unprecedented use of post-structuralist theory to rethink international law. After Meaning will be an essential reference point for legal scholars, researchers and students who seek to understand a different way of thinking about meaning in international law. The book's engagement with post-structuralism will also prove beneficial to anyone interested in the philosophy of language and literary theory.

Exploring the growing significance of the administration of justice in both democratic and non-democratic countries, often labeled as 'the judicialization of politics', this timely book considers how increased levels of interest in the analysis of judicial institutions have been triggered. It examines the expansion of the role of judges and courts in the political system and the mixed reactions generated by these developments. In this comprehensive book, Carlo Guarnieri and Patrizia Pederzoli draw on a wealth of experience in teaching and research in the field, moving beyond traditional legal analysis and providing a clear, concise and all-encompassing introduction to the phenomenon of the administration of justice and all of its traits. Facilitating a deeper understanding of the concrete dynamics characterizing the judicial system and its relationships with the political environment, it also offers a balanced assessment of the process of judicialization. Students and scholars interested in comparative law and politics, and law and society, who wish to broaden their understanding of courts and the operation of the judicial system will find this to be a valuable resource. The wide coverage of cases from both common and civil law traditions will also appeal to practitioners.

This Research Handbook offers unparalleled insights into the large-scale resurgence of interest in Marx and Marxism in recent years, with contributions devoted specifically to Marxist critiques of law, rights, and the state. The Research Handbook brings together thirty-three scholars of Marx, Marxism, and law from around the world to offer theoretically informed introductions to the Marxist tradition of social critique, contemporary Marxist analyses of law and rights, and future orientations of Marxist legal analysis. Chapters testify to the strength of Marxist critical tools for understanding the role of law, rights, and the state in capitalist societies. Exploring Marxist critique across an extraordinarily wide range of scholarly disciplines, this Research Handbook is a must-read for scholars of law, politics, sociology, philosophy, and political economy who are interested in Marxism. Graduate and advanced undergraduate students in these and related disciplines will also benefit from the Research Handbook.

This innovative book extensively probes and reveals the existence of legal fictions in international law, developing a theory of their effectiveness and legitimacy. Reece Lewis argues that, since legal fictions exist in all systems and types of law, international law is no different and deserves discrete, detailed examination. The book considers the implications of the phenomenon, showing that while some international legal fictions are problematic, others can assist the application of international law through maintaining a coherent, stable and peaceful international legal order. The author identifies and critically analyses a host of international legal fictions and explores, in detail, the factors that determine their effectiveness. Chapters answer key questions such as: what is a legal fiction?, How do they exist in international law?, Should international law use legal fictions? and many more. Shedding light on a subject that is of contemporary relevance and importance, Legal Fictions in International Law will be an informative read for academics, researchers and students in international law, legal theory and public policy.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. This insightful and highly readable Advanced Introduction provides a succinct, yet comprehensive, overview of legal reasoning, covering both reasoning from canonical texts and legal decision-making in the absence of rules. Overall, it argues that there are only two methods by which judges decide legal disputes: deductive reasoning from rules and unconstrained moral, practical, and empirical reasoning. discussion and analysis of the interpretive methods used in legal decision-making guidance for the reader through the debates on analogical reasoning and construction of legal principles a defense of intention-based interpretation of legal rules and natural reasoning in law. This Advanced Introduction will be an invaluable resource for students looking for an overview of the subject. It will also be useful for legal practitioners, scholars, and judges.

As law's institutional configurations stand, comparative law is a relatively new discipline. The first specialized journals and chairs, for example, go back a mere two hundred years or so. Yet, in its two centuries of institutional existence, comparative law has been the focus of much discussion, mostly by comparatists themselves reflecting on their practice. Indeed, some of this thinking came firmly to establish itself as a governing epistemology within the field. This book holds that the time has nonetheless come, even for such a young venture as comparative law, to engage in a re-thinking of its intellectual ways. Specifically, three comparatists hailing from different horizons investigate various assumptions and lines of reasoning that must invite reconsideration. The principal ambition informing the work is to optimize the interpretive rewards that the comparison of laws is in a position to generate. Not limited to a particular country or jurisdiction, Rethinking Comparative Law aims to attract a large audience comprising students and scholars from diverse cultural backgrounds. Undergraduate or postgraduate law students and lawyers with an interest in comparative law will find the book helpful for a better appreciation of the many implications arising from the increased interaction with foreign law in a globalizing world.

International Humanitarian Law (IHL) is in a state of some turbulence, as a result of, among other things, non-international armed conflicts, terrorist threats and the rise of new technologies. This incisive book observes that while states appear to be reluctant to act as agents of change, informal methods of law-making are flourishing. Illustrating that not only courts, but various non-state actors, push for legal developments, this timely work offers an insight into the causes of this somewhat ambivalent state of IHL by focusing attention on both the legitimacy of law-making processes and the actors involved. Investigating what law-making processes reveal about the overall state of this legal regime, this thought-provoking book shows that current developments display a far-reaching disagreement about the direction into which IHL should evolve. It explores the most relevant trends in the development of IHL including the absence of formal law-making by states, informal law-making through manual processes and the increasing role of sub and non-state actors. Law-Making and Legitimacy in International Humanitarian Law will be of benefit to scholars and students of international law and relations, as well as practitioners working in the field of IHL, particularly in government ministries, international organizations and NGOs.

This insightful Research Handbook provides a definitive overview of the New Legal Realism (NLR) movement, reaching beyond historical and national boundaries to form new conversations. Drawing on deep roots within the law-and-society tradition, it demonstrates the powerful virtues of new legal realist research and its attention to the challenges of translation between social science and law. Highlighting a contrast with the current Empirical Legal Studies movement, chapters employ a variety of theoretically grounded methods to understand law and address legal problems. They explore an impressive range of contemporary issues including immigration, policing, globalization, legal education, and access to justice, concluding with an examination of how different social science disciplines intersect with NLR. Incorporating global perspectives, the Research Handbook on Modern Legal Realism will be a key resource for scholars and students of legal theory and sociolegal studies. Illuminating the best approaches for combining social science considerations with expert perspectives on legal doctrines, it will also be of interest to practitioners and policy makers working in fields such as criminal and family law.

Legal academics in Europe publish a wide variety of materials including books, articles and essays, in an assortment of languages, and for a diverse readership. As a consequence, this variety can pose a problem for the evaluation of academic legal research. This thought-provoking book offers an overview of the legal and policy norms, methods and criteria applied in the evaluation of academic legal research, from a comparative perspective. The expert contributions explore developments relating to professional vs academic publications, editorial review vs peer review, rankings of journals and law schools vs other reputation mechanisms and a range of other evaluation practices and their intended and unintended effects. Analysing research evaluation practices across more than ten jurisdictions and multiple contexts, this insightful book reveals how evaluation practices differ across Europe. Through this analysis, the book exposes a range of possibilities for further debate and study. Engaging and topical, Evaluating Academic Legal Research in Europe will be valuable reading for legal academics, university and faculty managers, higher-education policy-makers and administrators as well as editors of law journals, legal publishers and research foundation and funding bodies. Contributors include: A. Bakardjieva Engelbrekt, K. Byland, D. Costa, J. Hojnik, P. Letto-Vanamo, A. Lienhard, D. Mac Sithigh, E. Maier, G. Peruginelli, N. Petersen, K. Purnhagen, A. Ruda Gonzalez, M. Schmied, M. Snel, R. van Gestel

The increasing transnationalisation of regulation - and social life more generally - challenges the basic concepts of legal and political theory today. One of the key concepts being so challenged is authority. This discerning book offers a plenitude of resources and suggestions for meeting that challenge. Chapters by leading scholars from a wide variety of disciplines confront the limits of traditional state-based conceptions of authority, and propose new frameworks and metaphors. They also reflect on the methodological challenges of the transnational context, including the need for collaboration between empirical and conceptual analysis, and the value of historicising authority. Examining the challenge offered by transnational authority in a range of specific contexts, including security, accounting, banking and finance, and trade, Authority in Transnational Legal Theory analyzes the relations between authority, legitimacy and power. Furthermore, this book also considers the implications of thinking about authority for other key concepts in transnational legal theory, such as jurisdiction and sovereignty. Comprehensive and engaging, this book will appeal to both legal academics and students of law. It will also prove invaluable to political scientists and political theorists interested in the concept of authority as well as social scientists working in the field of regulation. Contributors include: P.S. Berman, R. Cotterrell, K. Culver, M. Del Mar, M. Giudice, N. Jansen, N. Krisch, S.F. Moore, H. Muir Watt, H. Psarras, S. Quack, N. Roughan, M. Troper, N. Walker

Allan Beever lays the foundation for a timely philosophical and empirical study of the nature of law with a detailed examination of the structure of evolving law through declaratory speech acts. This engaging book demonstrates both how law itself is achieved and also its ability to generate rights, duties, obligations, permissions and powers. Structured into three distinct parts - the philosophy of law and jurisprudence, the structure of the social word and the ontology of law, and the reconstruction of the philosophy of law - the author provides insight into law as a human institution and reveals that central debates are often based on misunderstandings of interpretation and intentionality. Inspired by the philosophy of John Searle alongside other well-respected legal theorists, the author also analyses both sides of the mainstream jurisprudential divide in its current state, in particular the theory of legal positivism. Examining all aspects of law and answering the important question of 'What is Law?', this book will be an invaluable resource for academics and advanced students in law schools and philosophy departments.

Does the competitive process constitute an autonomous societal value, or is it a means for achieving more reliable and measurable goals such as welfare, growth, integration, and innovation? This insightful book addresses this question from philosophical, legal and economic perspectives and demonstrates exactly why the competitive process is a value independent from other legitimate antitrust goals. Oles Andriychuk consolidates the normative theories surrounding freedom, market and competition by assessing their effective use within the matrix of EU competition policy. He outlines the broader context of the phenomenon of competition such as its pivotal role in the electoral system and its implications for free speech, and then goes on to investigate its relationship with the proponents of various antitrust-related goals. Further to this, some relevant solutions to persistent regulatory problems of antitrust are discussed. Timely and thought provoking, this book will be of interest to both students and scholars of European competition law, as well as those who are curious about its philosophical foundations. Offering deep insights into the nature of the competitive process, it will also appeal to judges and politicians weighing up antitrust goals.