Jurisprudence: The Philosophy and Method of the Law

When Edgar Bodenheimers book, Jurisprudence: The Philosophy and Method of the Law, was published in 1962, it received extraordinary reviews. It was called by one commentator a profoundly scholarly, clearly written and thoroughly unpretentious contribution to the literature of jurisprudence. Because there have been significant developments in analytical jurisprudence and in the legal philosophy of values, Bodenheimer has brought his book up to date.

Part I now includes a discussion of important recent contributions to jurisprudence. Part II has been largely rewritten to give more extensive consideration to the psychological roots of the need for order and quest for justice, the conceptual scope and substantive components of the notion of justice, and the criteria for validity of the law. Part III of Bodenheimers study is concerned with the problems of legal method and the modes of legal reasoning.

Contents
Part I. Historical Introduction to the Philosophy of Law
Chapter 1.    Greek and Roman Legal Theory
Chapter 2.    Legal Philosophy in the Middle Ages
Chapter 3.    The Classical Era of Natural Law
Chapter 4.    German Transcendental Idealism
Chapter 5.    Historical and Evolutionary Theories
Chapter 6.    Utilitarianism
Chapter 7.    Analytical Positivism
Chapter 8.    Sociological Jurisprudence and Legal Realism
Chapter 9.    The Revival of Natural Law and Value-Oriented Jurisprudence
Part II. The Nature and Functions of the Law
Chapter 10.  The Need for Order
Chapter 11.  The Quest for Justice
Chapter 12.  Law as a Synthesis of Order and Justice
Chapter 13.  Law as Distinguished from Other Agencies of Social Control
Chapter 14.  The Benefits and Drawbacks of the Rule of Law
Part III. The Sources and Techniques of the Law
Chapter 15.  The Formal Sources of the Law
Chapter 16.  The Non formal Sources of the Law
Chapter 17.  Law and Scientific Method
Chapter 18.  The Techniques of the Judicial Process
Table of Cases
Index of Names
Index of Subjects