Philosophical Foundations of Precedent

Philosophical Foundations of Precedent offers a broad, deep, and diverse range of philosophical investigations of the role of precedent in law, adjudication, and morality. The forty chapters present the work of a large and inclusive group of authors which comprises of well-established leaders in the discipline and new voices in legal philosophy.

The magnitude of the resulting project is extraordinary, presenting a diverse array of innovative and creative philosophical investigations of the practice of adhering to past decisions, in law and allied fields of practical reasoning. And by the same token, the contributions elucidate the reasons that courts and other decision-makers may have for departing from what has been done before. The phenomena under investigation include the law and practice of common law and civil jurisdictions around the world.

In addition to its fundamental relevance to common law jurisdictions, this work will be of broad and significant interest to theoretically minded audiences in continental Europe, Latin America, and Asia because it involves an extensive study of practices of precedent in civil law systems as well as common law systems.

Timothy Endicott, Vinerian Professor of English Law, University of Oxford,Hafsteinn Dan Kristjánsson, Assistant Professor, University of Iceland, and Lecturer in Law, Balliol College and St Anne's College, Oxford,Sebastian Lewis, Lecturer in Law, Oriel College, Oxford, and Global Associate Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame in England. Incoming Fellow in Law, University of Surrey

Timothy Endicott is the Vinerian Professor of English Law at the University of Oxford. He writes on Constitutional and Administrative Law and Jurisprudence, with special interests in law and language and legal interpretation. He was a Fellow in Law at Balliol College from 1999 to 2020 and served as the Dean of the Faculty of Law in Oxford for two terms, from 2007 to 2015. He is the author of Administrative Law, 4th edition (OUP 2018) and Vagueness in Law (OUP 2000).

Hafsteinn Dan Kristjánsson is an adjunct at the University of Iceland and a lecturer at Balliol College, Oxford. Before that, he was the deputy to the Parliamentary Ombudsman in Iceland. He has written two books, twenty peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and 13 other articles or book chapters on law chiefly in the fields of administrative and constitutional law, legal method, jurisprudence, civil and criminal procedure as well as criminal law.

Sebastian Lewis is Lecturer in Law, Oriel College, Oxford, and Global Associate Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame in England and Incoming Fellow in Law, University of Surrey. He is interested in jurisprudence, legal reasoning, public law, and comparative public law. He has taught constitutional law and jurisprudence for various colleges at Oxford and King's College London. He holds a Master of Laws from Harvard Law School and is a qualified lawyer in Chile.