Law and Justice in Community

• Offers an original theory of the nature of law, drawing on anthropological research and reinterpretations of classical sources
• Reconnects the theory of law with older traditions of philosophical reflection on the nature of justice and its achievement in community
• Represents an original contribution to the sociological literature on law in society, and its connection with general philosophy of law

Readership: Scholars and students of jurisprudence, legal theory and legal, social and political philosophy.

Garrett Barden, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at University College Cork, Ireland, and Visiting Professor of Law, University of Akureyri, Iceland, and Tim Murphy, Visiting Professor of Law, University of North Malaysia

"...a novel and signal contribution to jurisprudence. It addresses perennial concerns, such as the nature of law, obligation, authority, legitimacy, morality, and the natural law...Law and Justice in Community lies in a different intellectual tradition. It draws principally on the ideas of Aristotle and Aquinas, combined with an account of justice honed through a consideration of Roman law...Law and Justice in Community will enlighten and provoke in equal measure. For that, the authors are to be both thanked and applauded." - Oran Doyle. The Irish Jurist

"While one of its manifest virtues is its careful scholarly precision, [Law and Justice in Community] manages to combine this with a comprehensive approach that is both exciting and persuasive. . If one were looking for sources for this approach, one would perhaps not be wrong in selecting the antecedently unlikely quartet of Hobbes, Aristotle, Hayek and Aquinas as being pre-eminent among those who inspire Professors Barden and Murphy. In the end, however, whatever they may have taken over from previous thinkers, or perhaps because of what has been taken, the authors' approach to their topic, without straining for novelty for novelty's sake, is distinctly original. This book should be read by anyone interested in jurisprudence or the philosophy of law and would provide valuable material to students of anthropology, history, sociology and political science." - Gerard Casey. International Journal of Philosophical Studies

"It is very informative to see the Aristotelian way of analyzing political and jurisprudential problems working from different premises than is ordinarily done. This book is both radical and traditional and it is splendidly argued. It deserves to be widely read and to be influential." - Gudmundur Heidar Frimansson, Nordicum-Mediterraneum

"The authors draw from disparate sources, historic and geographic, for conceptual inspiration and example. The authors' reliance on the Greeks and Romans and the work of Thomas Aquinas, and their resulting global approach to the theory of law, counterbalances the specificity of school into which jurisprudential enquiry has migrated. The authors do not proceed from an overly rigorous process of definition and methodology but from a common sense and learned approach drawn from their independent, clear-thinking reflection. As a consequence, those who do not agree with everything in the book will find much of value so far as the authors' intuitive analyses elucidate, correspond with, and broaden their own experience and views." - Diarmuid Rossa Phelan, Dublin University Law Journal

1: Introduction: The Grey Goose
2: The Origins of Civil Society and the Function of Law
3: Justice, Ownership, and Law
4: Natural Justice and Conventional Justice
5: Justice and the Trading Order
6: Adjudication and Interpretation
7: Morality, Law, and Legislation
8: Natural Law
9: Rights
10: The Force of Law
11: The Authority and Legitimacy of Law
12: Conclusion