Frontiers of Legal Theory - Hardcover

Posner, The Honorable Richard A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 067400485X ISBN 13: 9780674004856

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2001

Synopsis

The most exciting development in legal thinking since World War II has been the growth of interdisciplinary legal studies--the application of the social sciences and the humanities to law in the hope of making law less formalistic, more practical, better grounded empirically, bettered tailored to social goals. Judge Richard A. Posner has been a leader in this movement, and his new book explores its rapidly expanding frontier. The book examines five principal areas or directions of interdisciplinary study: economics, history, psychology, the epistemology of law and the empirical study of law. These approaches are seen to interpenetrate and to compose a coherent body of legal theory--a unified framework for understanding such seemingly disparate phenomena as the economics of free speech, the intellectual history of economic analysis of law, the relation between income and liberty, the law of possession, the psychology of legal decisionmaking, the role of emotion in law, and the use of citation analysis to evaluate judges and law professors. The book carries on Posner's project of analyzing the law as an institution of social governance.

About this title

About the Author

Richard A. Posner is Circuit Judge, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School.

Reviews

Posner, a federal appellate judge (he was chosen to mediate the recent Microsoft antitrust case) and legal scholar (at the University of Chicago), examines the points of connection between law and a series of related fields, including economics, psychology, history and statistics. The purpose of the study is to determine whether these other disciplines can inform and improve the American legal system. Posner's central interest remains the intersection of law and economics, an approach featuring cost-benefit analysis as a tool for making policy choices and for steering judges toward efficient decisions. Some of the discussion is technical (e.g., regression analysis) and will be accessible only to specialists. Other chapters contain Posner's responses to recent articles by other leading adherents of the law and economics theory, and so will appeal to an academic readership. There are, however, other sections of the book that seem to reflect the author's experience in the courtroom rather than in the seminar room, and these passages are fully accessible to the general reader. For example, Posner offers insights into such controversial issues as hate-crime legislation, controls over speech on the Internet, the costs and benefits of the jury system, and the standards for excluding categories of evidence from trial. Posner's take on these issues is unfailingly original, crisply expressed and appropriately qualified by recognition of the limitations as well as the strengths of theory applied to real-world problems. Whether you agree with his conclusions or not, Posner demonstrates how to think hard and systematically about law.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

As both a federal judge and an author, Posner is well qualified to provide us with this timely overview of the leading trends currently guiding American legal thought. Promoting the concept of legal theory as a unified field of social science, the author delineates five areas for particular scrutiny: economics, history, psychology, epistemology, and quantitative empiricism. Posner cleverly argues for the transformation of the practice of law to an academic discipline by noting some of the inherent advantages. Such an approach, for example, offers a neutral standpoint on politically controversial legal topics. Legal disputes arising in such diverse areas as bankruptcy, contracts, and torts can, in this context, be illuminated, refined, and rectified upon referral to principles of economic efficiency and cost containment rather than to more traditional courtroom techniques such as fiery rhetoric. An empirical approach to the law can, the author claims, shed new light on issues such as campaign finance reform, free speech, and regulation of the Internet. The reliability of testimony is frequently crucial to the ability of the legal system to ascertain the facts of a dispute. Skeptics about testimony are therefore bound to be skeptical about the factual accuracy of verdicts. Posner devotes much attention to the comparative advantages of the adversarial vs. the inquisitorial system. This book is heavy reading, intended primarily for those with a high level of academic interest in the law. Recommended for advanced academic and law libraries only. Philip Y. Blue, New York State Supreme Court Criminal Branch Law Lib., New York
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/pdf/POSFRX_excerpt.pdf

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 067400485X
• ISBN 13: 9780674004856
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 464