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Mutual Expectations

A Conventionalist Theory of Law

  • Book
  • © 2002

Overview

Part of the book series: Law and Philosophy Library (LAPS, volume 56)

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About this book

The law persists because people have reasons to comply with its rules. What characterizes those reasons is their interdependence: each of us only has a reason to comply because he or she expects the others to comply for the same reasons. The rules may help us to solve coordination problems, but the interaction patterns regulated by them also include Prisoner's Dilemma games, Division problems and Assurance problems. In these "games" the rules can only persist if people can be expected to be moved by considerations of fidelity and fairness, not only of prudence.
This book takes a fresh look at the perennial problems of legal philosophy - the source of obligation to obey the law, the nature of authority, the relationship between law and morality, and the nature of legal argument - from the perspective of this conventionalist understanding of social rules. It argues that, since the resilience of such rules depends on cooperative dispositions, conventionalism, properly understood, does not imply positivism.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Fac. Geesteswetenschappen LS Ethik, Univ. Amsterdam Afd. Wijsbegeerte, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Govert Hartogh

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Mutual Expectations

  • Book Subtitle: A Conventionalist Theory of Law

  • Authors: Govert Hartogh

  • Series Title: Law and Philosophy Library

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2002

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-90-411-1796-0Published: 31 May 2002

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-90-481-8470-5Published: 25 December 2010

  • Series ISSN: 1572-4395

  • Series E-ISSN: 2215-0315

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XI, 291

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