Legality

by Scott J. Shapiro

Overview

This highly successful manual has served for nearly three decades as the definitive guide to the safe use of radioactive materials. Completely revised and updated, the fourth edition presents a new dimension by adding coverage of nonionizing radiation, and is thus concerned with the entire field of radiation protection. The author takes the novel approach of introducing the whole range of energies possessed by particles and electromagnetic waves at the beginning of the text, thus integrating coverage of ionizing and nonionizing radiation rather than considering them as two separate disciplines. He goes on to cover the entire spectrum of radiation sources, including radionuclides, x-ray machines, accelerators, nuclear reactors, power lines, microwave towers, and cellular phones. With its expanded coverage, including a broader focus on public health issues, this new volume will serve as an important training and reference resource, not only for research scientists, physicians, and engineers, but for regulatory officials, attorneys, engineers, and environmental health and safety professionals. The breadth of citations alone makes this resource invaluable.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674267299
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	09/02/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	488
File size:	915 KB

About the Author

Scott J. Shapiro is Charles F. Southmayd Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at Yale Law School.

Table of Contents

Contents 1. What Is Law (and Why Should We Care)? 2. Crazy Little Thing Called “Law” 3. Austin’s Sanction Theory 4. Hart and the Rule of Recognition 5. How to Do Things with Plans 6. The Making of a Legal System 7. What Law Is 8. Legal Reasoning and Judicial Decision Making 9. Hard Cases 10. Theoretical Disagreements 11. Dworkin and Distrust 12. The Economy of Trust 13. The Interpretation of Plans 14. The Value of Legality Notes Acknowledgments Index

What People are Saying About This

Mark Greenberg

A strikingly original, highly accessible, and well-worked-out theory of the nature of law. Shapiro is on the positivist side, but a tremendous strength of the book is that it engages deeply and sympathetically with natural law and anti-positivist theorists. Everyone serious about the philosophy of law needs to read this book.
— Mark Greenberg, UCLA

Arthur Ripstein

An outstanding contribution--almost certainly the most important book on its topic since Dworkin's Law's Empire. Legality develops a novel and forceful account of the nature of law, but the engagements with other prominent accounts are so resolutely fair and powerfully presented that, were I to suggest one book for someone wanting to understand contemporary debates in jurisprudence, this would be it.
— Arthur Ripstein, University of Toronto

Editorial Reviews

Highly recommended.

Choice

I feel confident that Legality is one of the very best books in general jurisprudence in many, many years… I suspect that Legality will become a standard work for students of law and philosophy… Everyone who engages in the academic study of law should read Legality—it is that important.

Legal Theory blog - Lawrence B. Solum

An outstanding contribution—almost certainly the most important book on its topic since Dworkin’s Law’s Empire. Legality develops a novel and forceful account of the nature of law, but the engagements with other prominent accounts are so resolutely fair and powerfully presented that, were I to suggest one book for someone wanting to understand contemporary debates in jurisprudence, this would be it.

Arthur Ripstein

Scott Shapiro’s Legality is a rich and ambitious discussion of law’s fundamental nature. Almost every page is provocative, touching upon many of the most interesting, complicated and controversial areas within this area of inquiry.

Oxford Journal of Legal Studies - Stefan Sciaraffa

Rich and vibrant with jurisprudential ambition… There are lots of riches in Scott Shapiro’s book… I have not been able to convey how well this book is written or how much light the author is able to shed along the way on various issues in the philosophy of law… It shows that the idea of planning can indeed cast light on the problems of jurisprudence without necessarily blinding us to other analogies and other sources of insight.

Michigan Law Review - Jeremy Waldron

A strikingly original, highly accessible, and well-worked-out theory of the nature of law. Shapiro is on the positivist side, but a tremendous strength of the book is that it engages deeply and sympathetically with natural law and anti-positivist theorists. Everyone serious about the philosophy of law needs to read this book.

Mark Greenberg

It cannot be doubted that Shapiro’s book, which clarifies and advances analytical jurisprudence, is bound to be a classic text.

Jotwell - Ekow Yankah

Legality is the most important contribution about the nature of law in recent years and a book that raises the bar for future work in jurisprudence. With admirable clarity, Shapiro argues that legal systems should not be understood simply in terms of rules, but instead as highly complex tools for creating and applying plans. His account offers an illuminating alternative to the literature and challenges much received wisdom.

Times Higher Education - Thom Brooks

This book is…imaginative, incisive, fair to interlocutors, and written with elegance and wit… It is essential reading for philosophers of law.

Law and Philosophy - Mark C. Murphy

Shapiro has produced a work of enduring significance.

Yale Law Journal - Frederick Schauer

Legality makes a contribution to the field that no student of jurisprudence can ignore.

Judith Baer

[Legality] is a sympathetic, accessible, and highly readable exposition of the theories that have preceded it. It is now one of the best single-authored introductions to the subject. It is also a significant contribution. Moreover, it is an apologia for the subject itself, and for the method of conceptual analysis as a way of uncovering the nature and grounds of law… Both as a defense and example of analytic jurisprudence…this book is unrivalled.

Jurisprudence - William A. Edmundson

Legality makes a contribution to the field that no student of jurisprudence can ignore.
— Judith Baer

Political Science Quarterly

It cannot be doubted that Shapiro's book, which clarifies and advances analytical jurisprudence, is bound to be a classic text.
— Ekow Yankah

Jotwell

Scott Shapiro's Legality is a rich and ambitious discussion of law's fundamental nature. Almost every page is provocative, touching upon many of the most interesting, complicated and controversial areas within this area of inquiry.
— Stefan Sciaraffa

Oxford Journal of Legal Studies

[Legality] is a sympathetic, accessible, and highly readable exposition of the theories that have preceded it. It is now one of the best single-authored introductions to the subject. It is also a significant contribution. Moreover, it is an apologia for the subject itself, and for the method of conceptual analysis as a way of uncovering the nature and grounds of law...Both as a defense and example of analytic jurisprudence...this book is unrivalled.
— William A. Edmundson

Jurisprudence

Rich and vibrant with jurisprudential ambition...There are lots of riches in Scott Shapiro's book...I have not been able to convey how well this book is written or how much light the author is able to shed along the way on various issues in the philosophy of law...It shows that the idea of planning can indeed cast light on the problems of jurisprudence without necessarily blinding us to other analogies and other sources of insight.
— Jeremy Waldron

Michigan Law Review

This book is...imaginative, incisive, fair to interlocutors, and written with elegance and wit...It is essential reading for philosophers of law.
— Mark C. Murphy

Law and Philosophy

I feel confident that Legality is one of the very best boks in general jurisprudence in many, many years...I suspect that Legality will become a standard work for students of law and philosophy...Everyone who engages in the academic study of law should read Legality—it is that important.
— Lawrence B. Solum

Legal Theory blog

Shapiro has produced a work of enduring significance.
— Frederick Schauer

Yale Law Journal