The political nature of legal, and especially judicial, decision making is the subject of this book. It attempts to integrate the American approach to law, an uneasy balance of commitment and intense skepticism, with the Continental tradition in social theory, philosophy and psychology. The centre of this work is the question of how politics affects judicial activity, and how in turn lawmaking by judges affects American politics. Opposing views on whether law is political in character are considered, and the author puts forward his own theory of adjudication that includes accounts of judicial rhetoric and the experience of judging.
