It's All in the Game: A Nonfoundationalist Account of Law and AdjudicationThree questions concerning modern legal thought provide the framework for It’s All in the Game: What should judges do? What do judges do? What can judges do? Contrasting his own answers to traditional responses and moving playfully between debates of high theory, daily practices of appellate judges, and his own enlightening analyses of significant court rulings, Allan C. Hutchinson examines what it means to treat adjudication as an engaged game of rhetorical justification. His resulting argument enables the reader to grasp more fully the practical operation, political determinants, and the transformative possibilities of law and adjudication. Taking on leading contemporary theories to explore the claim that “law is politics,” Hutchinson delineates a route toward professional, relevant, and responsible—if radical—judicial practices. After discussing the difference between foundationalist, antifoundationalist, and nonfoundationalist legal critiques, he offers a focused, unequivocal, and positive account of the advantages of operating within a nonfoundationalist framework. Although such an approach centralizes the role of rhetoric in law, Hutchinson claims that this does not necessitate a turn away from politics or, more particularly, from a progressive politics. Driving home the political and jurisprudential impact of his critique and of his account of nonfoundationalist alternatives, he urges judges and jurists to engage in law’s language game of politics. This engaging book will interest linguistic philosophers, legal theorists, law students, attorneys, judges, and jurists of all stripes. |
Contents
Playing the Game An Introduction | 1 |
Its All in the Game Adjudication in a Nonfoundationalist Way | 20 |
The Language Game From Ambiguity to Indeterminacy | 54 |
Playing with Authority Interpretation and Identity | 86 |
A Pure Way of Playing The Naturalist Revival | 116 |
At Play in the Fields of Law The Reasoning Game | 151 |
Playing by the Rules A Good Faith Approach | 180 |
Calling the Shots The Development of Legal Doctrine | 216 |
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Accordingly account of law analogical reasoning antifoundationalist argument challenge claim commitment common law constitutional constraints context contingent corrective justice courts cricket critical Critical Legal Studies cross burning debate decision deconstructive deep-logic democratic Derrida discourse Dworkin efforts engage fact faith foundational foundationalist Geoffrey Lane H. L. A. Hart Hart Hart's hermeneutical historical Ibid identity ideological important indeterminacy insist interpretation judges and jurists judgment judicial jurisprudence jurisprudential jury justice law and adjudication law's language game lawyers legal doctrine legal reasoning legal theory ludic ludic judges MacKinnon Marxist matter means to play ment moral nonfoundational nonfoundational account nonfoundational critique nonfoundationalist account nonfoundationalist approach nonfoundationalist critique nonfoundationalist perspective particular performance philosophical play the game players playful political pornography possible practice pragmatic principles relations responsibility rhetorical Scalia sense sexual soccer social society structure substantive Sunstein supra note theoretical tion tionalist tort tort law traditional transformative truth understanding values Weinrib women