Evolution and the Common Law (Paperback, New)

This book offers a radical challenge to all existing accounts of the common law's development. Contrary to received jurisprudential wisdom, it maintains there is no grand theory which will explain satisfactorily the dynamic interactions of change and stability in the common law's history. Offering fresh and original readings of Charles Darwin's and Hans-Georg Gadamer's works, the book shows that law is a rhetorical activity that can only be properly appreciated in its historical and political context; tradition and transformation are locked in a mutually reinforcing but thoroughly contingent embrace. In contrast to the dewy-eyed offerings of much contemporary work, it demonstrates that, like life, law is an organic process (i.e., events are the products of functional and localized causes) rather than a miraculous one (i.e., events are the result of some grand plan or intervention). In short, common law is a perpetual work-in-progress - evanescent, dynamic, messy, productive, tantalising, and bottom-up.

General

Imprint:	Cambridge UniversityPress
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	April 2005
First published:	2005
Authors:	Allan C. Hutchinson
Dimensions:	229 x 152 x 16mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - Trade
Pages:	306
Edition:	New
ISBN-13:	978-0-521-61491-7
Categories:	Books > Law > Jurisprudence & general issues > Legal history Books > Law > Jurisprudence & general issues > Foundations of law > Common law
LSN:	0-521-61491-0
Barcode:	9780521614917

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