Norm and Nature
(Oxford University Press, 1992)
ART 210
Norm and Nature deals with the traditional conflict in legal philosophy between positivistic and anti-positivistic theories of law. It examines the conflict with respect to seven central issues in legal philosophy – law as a reason for action, law and authority, the internal point of view to law, the acceptance of law, discretion and principle, interpretation and semantics, and law and the common good.
It has three theses. Firstly, that the opposition to positivism is based on acceptance of, rather than rejection of, claims made by positivism. Secondly, that the conflict between positivism and anti-positivism is irresolvable and finally, that the understanding of why this is so is the key to the understanding of the nature of law. Tension between formal and substantive considerations comprises the essence of law. The central theses presuppose that anti-positivism or natural law theory is defensible as an account of the nature of law. More than half the book, therefore, is a criticism of the prevailing orthodoxy of legal positivism and a defence of an anti-positivist view, making Norm and Nature important not only for the originality of its central theses, but also for its critique of positivism and for the thoroughness of its examination of contemporary legal thought.
(Description Source: Oxford University Press)
Author
Roger A. Shiner is an adjunct professor of Philosophy at UBC Okanagan. He began his university teaching career at the University of Alberta specializing in Ancient Philosophy and Ethics. He specialized in philosophy of law from mid-1970s onwards. He also began research and teaching in aesthetics around the same time, and began teaching business ethics in mid-1980s. He took an early retirement from the University of Alberta in 1966, before teaching part-time for Okanagan University College in 2002 and subsequently for both Okanagan College and UBCO. He retired from teaching in 2018.
UBC Library Holdings
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Hardback ISBN: 9780198257196
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