Philosophy of Law

You Decide! Current Debates in Criminal Justice

This book offers students a unique opportunity to examine strong yet very readable competing views on twenty of the major issues in contemporary criminal justice. It features the works of major writers in the discipline and explores the ideas, orientations and arguments driving the field. Each essay quickly draws readers into the debate using accompanying questions and encourages …

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Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Legal Theory, and Judicial Restraint

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr, is considered by many to be the most influential American jurist. The voluminous literature devoted to his writings and legal thought, however, is diverse and inconsistent. In this study, Frederic R. Kellogg follows Holmes’s intellectual path from his early writings through his judicial career. He offers a fresh perspective that addresses the views of …

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Philosophical Foundations of Criminal Law (Philosophical Foundations of Law)

25 leading contemporary theorists of criminal law tackle a range of foundational issues about the proper aims and structure of the criminal law in a liberal democracy. The challenges facing criminal law are many. There are crises of over-criminalization and over-imprisonment; penal policy has become so politicized that it is difficult to find any clear consensus on …

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