The Authority of Law

• A classic work, widely influential and still frequently cited, essential reading for all scholars and students of legal philosophy
• Widely regarded as Raz's most accessible work, the book offers an ideal introduction for students to the work of a major legal philosopher
• Pagination of the main text is unaltered from the original edition, allowing citations to be easily followed

New to this edition

• Includes two previously uncollected essays that develop Raz's views on the nature of law, and a new introduction by the author

Readership: Advanced students and academics in philosophy and in law

Joseph Raz, Research Professor, Oxford University and Research Professor, Columbia University Law School

Joseph Raz has been teaching in Oxford since 1972. He has held a chair in the philosophy of law since 1985, and has been a Research Professor since 2006. He has also held a professorship at Columbia University since 2002. He is a fellow of the British Academy and a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

I Law and Authority
1: Legitimate Authority
2: The Claims of Law
II The Nature of Law and Natural Law
3: Legal Positivism and the Sources of Law
4: Legal Reason, Sources, and Gaps
5: The Identity of Legal Systems
6: The Institutional Nature of Law
7: Kelsen's Theory of the Basic Norm
8: Legal Validity
III Internal Legal Values
9: The Functions of Law
10: Law and Value in Adjudication
11: The Rule of Law and its Virtue
IV Moral Attitudes to the Law
12: The Obligation to Obey the Law
13: Respect for Law
14: A Right to Dissent? I. Civil Disobedience
15: A Right to Dissent? II. Conscientious Objection
V Appendices
Appendix I The Purity of the Pure Theory
Appendix II The Argument from Justice