Closure or Critique : New Directions in Legal Theory (Edinburgh Law and Society Ser.)

Can law be understood as a closed, self-sustaining system of rules? Can it claim a measure of autonomy from broader social political and economic forces or is it always reducible to such forces? Is any claim to autonomy false, perhaps designed to legitimise the existing social order? Is law based upon moral foundations or are ethical considerations deeply disruptive of it? Questions of legal and moral closure and of the critique of law's foundations and possibilities lie at the heart of crucial claims about the nature and value of law in modern Western societies. Closure or Critique addresses them from a variety of Modern and Postmodern positions central to current legal thought with a ground-breaking collection of essays from leading academics. Bringing together a variety of diverse perspectives, and encouraging a dialogue between approaches to law that are frequently seen as simply at odds with each other, Closure or Critique will be of interest both to the advanced reader seeking new work at the cutting edge, and to the first time student requiring an overview of legal theory today.