Cover of The Concept of Law (Clarendon Law Series)

The Concept of Law (Clarendon Law Series)

Fifty years on from its original publication, HLA Hart's The Concept of Law is widely recognized as the most important work of legal philosophy published in the twentieth century. It is a classic book in the field of legal scholarship and remains the starting point for most students coming to the subject for the first time.

Read more

Known as Hart's most famous work, The Concept of Law emerged from a set of lectures that Hart began to deliver in 1952 in which he developed a sophisticated view of legal positivism. Hart revolutionized the methods of jurisprudence and the philosophy of law in the English-speaking world by bringing the tools of analytic, and especially linguistic, philosophy to bear on the central problems of legal theory.

In this third edition, Leslie Green provides a new introduction that sets the book in the context of subsequent developments in social and political philosophy, clarifying misunderstandings of Hart's project and highlighting central tensions and problems in the work. The Concept of Law remains a must-read for anyone interested in the great thinkers of the 20th century.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 315 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked The Concept of Law (Clarendon Law Series)? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked The Concept of Law (Clarendon Law Series). Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Law's Empire Shares law, philosophy, jurisprudence
  2. The Nature of the Judicial Process Shares law, philosophy, nonfiction
  3. The Morality of Law Shares law, philosophy, jurisprudence
  4. The Common Law Shares law, philosophy, nonfiction

“People who read The Concept of Law (Clarendon Law Series) tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Natural Law and Natural Rights (Clarendon Law Series)
  2. A History of American Law
  3. Pure Theory of Law
  4. The Sources of Normativity

“If you want more of the same (philosophy), start with these.”

  1. Pessimism: Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit
  2. The Classical Utilitarians, Bentham and Mill
  3. Marxism and the Philosophy of Language
  4. Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology

“If it was the law that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Case of the Speluncean Explorers: Nine New Opinions
  2. Legal Philosophy for Filipinos
  3. The concept of law
  4. Taking Rights Seriously

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Hegel
  2. Law & Economics
  3. Philosophy of Law: A Very Short Introduction
  4. American Law in the Twentieth Century