This collection of original papers from distinguished legal theorists offers a challenging assessment of the nature and viability of legal positivism, a branch of legal theory which continues to dominate contemporary legal theoretical debates. To what extent is the law adequately described as autonomous? Should law claim autonomy? These and other questions are addressed by the authors in this carefully edited collection, and it will be of interest to all lawyers and scholars interested in legal philosophy and legal theory.

• 1: Kent Greenawalt: Too Thin and Too Rich: Distinguishing Features of Legal Positivism


• 2: Frederick Schauer: Positivism as Pariah


• 3: R. George Wright: Does Positivism Matter?


• 4: Gerald J. Postema: Law's Autonomy and Public Practical Reason


• 5: Klaus Fusser: Farewell to `Legal Positivism': The Separation Thesis Unravelling


• 6: Neil MacCormack: The Concept of law and The Concept of Law


• 7: John Finnis: The Truth in Legal Positivism


• 8: Philip Soper: Law's Normative Claims


• 9: Joseph Raz: Intention in Interpretation


• 10: Jules Coleman: Authority and Reason


• 11: Robert P. George: Natural Law and Positive Law

Robert George is Professor of Law at Princeton University. He is a former Judicial Fellow at the Supreme Court of the United States and presidential Appointee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights