This, the twenty-seventh volume in the annual series of publications by the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy, features a number of distinguised contributors addressing the topic of criminal justice. Part I considers "The Moral and Metaphysical Sources of the Criminal Law," with contributions by Michael S. Moore, Lawrence Rosen, and Martin Shapiro. The four chapters in Part II all relate, more or less directly, to the issue of retribution, with papers by Hugo Adam Bedau, Michael Davis, Jeffrie G. Murphy, and R. B. Brandt. In the following part, Dennis F. Thompson, Christopher D. Stone, and Susan Wolf deal with the special problem of criminal responsibility in government one of great importance in modern society. The fourth and final part, echoing the topic of NOMOS XXIV, Ethics, Economics, and the Law, addresses the economic theory of crime. The section includes contributions by Alvin K. Klevorick, Richard A. Posner, Jules L. Coleman, and Stephen J. Schulhofer. A valuable bibiography on criminal justice by Andrew C. Blanar concludes this volume of NOMOS.

Human Nature in Politics brings the competences and perspectives of law, philosophy and political science to bear on an imporant subject seldom treated at book length. The subject of human nature in politics is as old as systematic thought about politics. Out of favor for a period in modern times, it is now once more the subject of attention by political theorists who often borrow heavily from the disciplines of biology and psychology. The plurality of their approaches and insights is reflecteed in Part I of the book: " Perspectives on Human Nature,"

Although appeals to human nature have historically been made by both radicals and conservatives, it is the latter who have more typically sought support from this source. However, modern radicals are beginning to re-explore the subject, as is evidenced in the second section on "Human Nature and Radical Political Thought."

In the concluding section of the book, four authors analyze the question of "Rationality and Human Nature" and, with a broader interpretation of rationality, find bases in human nature for some confidence that politics need not be an irrational enterprise. The bibliography at the end of the volume is of particular value for all students of political theory. Thirteen outstanding authors contribute to this volume, which must be of interest to legal philosophers and students of jurisprudence in all English-speaking countries.