Pragmatism and Law: From Philosophy to Dispute Resolution / Edition 1

by Michal Alberstein

Overview

Pragmatism and Law provides a textual reading of the American legal discourse, as it unfolds through various genres of pragmatism, which evolve and transform during the twentieth century. The historical narrative, which the book weaves, traces the transformation of the pragmatic idea from the forefront of philosophical intellectual inquiries at the turn of the twentieth century to a common sense lawyers’ practical rule of action at the turn of the twenty-first century. During this sequence, a fresh look at American history and legal history in particular is offered through the emphasis on recurring discursive structures which assume incommensurable treatments of basic liberal notions like justice, politics, and truth. Underlying the writing is an interpretative mode of inquiry, based on European post-structural methodologies, while claiming to represent their next intellectual phase. This contemporary mode of inquiry is that of a reading which insists on healing through the paradoxes. It is the same mode that sets, in the author’s view, the updated interpretative model of dispute resolution studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780754622086
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/23/2002
Series:	Law, Justice and Power
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.62(h) x (d)

About the Author

Michal Alberstein, Bar Ilan University, Israel

Table of Contents

Contents: The maturing of the pragmatic idea in law and society (or: the fall, and rise of philawsophy); Settled law and the law-is-not-but-ought-to-be: the pragmatic philosophy of dispute resolution (or: why couldn’t Henry Hart speak?); Taking sides: margins and phases of pragmatics of legal process disciplines (or: the pragmatists that we are); In search of the dispute: on lawyers and legal philawsophers at Harvard Law school (or: some private hope and public irony); From philawsophy to dispute-resolution (or: layers of mediation, and models of engagements in reality); Concluding notes; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

A textual analysis of the US legal discourse and its unfolding through time and place in terms of the pragmatic idea, based on Alberstein's (Bar Ilan U., Israel) doctoral dissertation for Harvard Medical School. Characterizing the jurisprudence of the 1950s as a constitutive moment that casts any narration as either before or after it, she follows the various appearances of pragmatism in time and place in order to trace the American singularity in historical narratives that emphasize both the general and the universal. A recurring theme is the iconic role of Harvard as representing this singularity. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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