Law's Empire-轻识

With the incisiveness and lucid style for which he is renowned, Ronald Dworkin has written a masterful explanation of how the Anglo-American legal system works and on what principles it is grounded. Law's Empire is a full-length presentation of his theory of law that will be studied and debated--by scholars and theorists, by lawyers and judges, by students and political ...

Dworkin begins with the question that is at the heart of the whole legal system: in difficult cases how do (and how should) judges decide what the law is? He shows that judges must decide hard cases by interpreting rather than simply applying past legal decisions, and he produces a general theory of what interpretation is--in literature as well as in law--and of when one interpretation is better than others. Every legal interpretation reflects an underlying theory about the general character of law: Dworkin assesses three such theories. One, which has been very influential, takes the law of a community to be only what the established conventions of that community say it is. Another, currently in vogue, assumes that legal practice is best understood as an instrument of society to achieve its goals. Dworkin argues forcefully and persuasively against both these views: he insists that the most fundamental point of law is not to report consensus or provide efficient means to social goals, but to answer the requirement that a political community act in a coherent and principled manner toward all its members. He discusses, in the light of that view, cases at common law, cases arising under statutes, and great constitutional cases in the Supreme Court, and he systematically demonstrates that his concept of political and legal integrity is the key to Anglo-American legal theory and practice. </p>

罗纳德·德沃金（Ronald Dworki，1931－2013），是当今世界上最具影响力的法理学家与政治哲学家之一，他就法律的性质阐发了具有广泛影响的整全法理论，他倡导对美国宪法的道德解读，对法律与道德的解释主义方法。德沃金也是美国最知名的公共知识分子之一，经常在《纽约图书评论》撰文评论诸多重大社会议题。

德沃金1931年出生于美国麻省沃塞斯特。1953年在哈佛大学取得文学士学位后，获得罗德奖学金，前往牛津大学留学。1955年，德沃金到哈佛大学法学院继续攻读法律。1962年获得耶鲁大学法学教职，开始从事学术研究。1968年发表成名作《规则的模式》。1969年接替哈特担任牛津大学法理学讲席教授，直至1998年退休。自1975年起，德沃金被合聘为纽约大学的法学与哲学讲席教授，其学术贡献极大地提升了纽约大学法学院的声誉。1998年之后，德沃金继续在纽约大学任教直至去世，同时也曾经在伦敦大学学院担任法理学讲席教授。2007年，德沃金获得具有人文社会科学领域诺贝尔奖美誉的“霍尔堡国际纪念奖”，以表彰其具有“世界性影响力”的“开拓性学术工作”。