This collection provides a comprehensive account of Robert Alexy's legal theory. It is divided into three parts: the nature of law; constitutional rights, human rights, and proportionality; and the relation between argumentation, correctness, and law.

Robert Alexy, Professor of Public Law and Legal Philosophy at Christian Albrechts University, Kiel, Germany.
Robert Alexy has been Professor of Public Law and Legal Philosophy at Christian Albrechts University, Kiel, since 1986. He was President of the German Section of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR) from 1994 to 1998. Alexy's other titles published by OUP include A Theory of Legal Argumentation, The Argument from Injustice, and A Theory of Constitutional Rights.

• Part I: The Nature of Law


• 1: The Nature of Legal Philosophy


• 2: On the Concept and the Nature of Law


• 3: The Dual Nature of Law


• 4: Law, Morality, and the Existence of Human Rights


• 5: An Answer to Joseph Raz


• 6: The Ideal Dimension of Law


• 7: Gustav Radbruch's Concept of Law


• Part II: Constitutional Rights, Human Rights, and Proportionality


• 8: The Construction of Constitutional Rights


• 9: Balancing, Constitutional Review, and Representation


• 10: The Existence of Human Rights


• 11: The Weight Formula


• 12: Formal Principles: Some Replies to Critics


• 13: Ideal 'Ought' and Optimization


• 14: Human Dignity and Proportionality


• 15: Proportionality and Rationality


• 16: The Absolute and the Relative Dimension of Constitutional Rights


• Part III: Argumentation, Correctness, and Law


• 17: A Discourse-Theoretical Conception of Practical Reason


• 18: Problems of Discourse Theory


• 19: Legal Argumentation as Rational Discourse


• 20: Jürgen Habermas's Theory of the Indeterminacy of Law and the Rationality of Adjudication


• 21: Law and Correctness