The last thirty years have witnessed a proliferation of theorising about law, as well as reflection on the very practice of that theorising. As the discipline of legal theory has flourished, so have methodological debates and controversies.
These debates are not only relevant to how legal theory understands its own enterprise: its problems and aims, and issues of scope. They are also relevant to many other aspects of the practice of legal theory, and its role vis-à-vis the practice of law and the practice of other related activities, such as legal scholarship and legal education. As the ambitions of legal theory grow, so do questions concerning its relations with other disciplines, such as comparative law, but also, much more broadly, the social sciences.
This three volume series on contemporary legal theory brings together a selection of previously published articles from leading legal theorists which are key papers in the discussion of the above controversies and challenges. Each volume opens with a substantial introduction to the papers and their context and ends with a selective bibliography for further reading.