Philosophy of Law & Legal Theory: A Basic Bibliography

Our next bibliography in the Directed Reading series covers “philosophy of law and legal theory.”

Some of the titles are from the discipline of philosophy proper but I thought to include them owing to their demonstrative or possible relevance to philosophy of law and legal theory (Larry Solum’s references in many of the entries in his Legal Theory Lexicon are exemplary in this regard). Still, there is much one might have included that I’ve left out: for example, “neuroethics and law” has become an increasingly important subject area that raises questions (some novel, others long-standing) in part addressed with the conceptual resources provided by philosophy, yet I’ve not included works in the philosophy of mind or the philosophy of science (in this case, neuroscience) essential to treating such questions. As a basic or “select” bibliography, the list is not exhaustive, yet I trust it fairly represents the scope and substance of philosophy of law and legal theory, at least in some parts of the globe. And I welcome suggestions for possible additions to the next draft of this compilation.

I want to thank Larry Solum of the Legal Theory Blog as well as Matt Bodie and Dan Markel of PrawfsBlawg for posting earlier drafts of this list (with the latter, as part of the ‘Research Canons’ project). And I'm most grateful to Dennis Patterson (see too here) for awakening and shaping my intellectual interest in the philosophy of law and legal theory.