On Philosophy in American Law

This collection of original essays by 38 leading legal theorists marks the 75th anniversary of Karl Llewellyn's essay 'On Philosophy in American Law.' Llewellyn's succinct and audacious review of the history of American legal philosophy and the prospects for an emerging 'legal realism' provides the model for this collection.

In recent years, there has been tremendous growth of interest in the connections between law and philosophy, but the diversity of approaches that claim to be working at the intersection of these disciplines might suggest that this area of inquiry is so fractured as to be incoherent. This volume gathers leading scholars to provide focused and straightforward articulations of the role that philosophy might play at this juncture of the history of American legal thought. It marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of Karl Llewellyn''s essay ''On Philosophy in American Law'' in which he rehearsed the broad development of American jurisprudence, diagnosed its contemporary failings and then charted a productive path opened by the variegated scholarship that claimed to initiate a realistic approach to law and legal theory. It is written in the spirit of Llewellyn''s article: they are succinct and direct arguments about the potential for bringing law and philosophy together.