The problems of jurisprudence
by Richard A. Posner · first published 1990
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2009–2026first – last mentioned
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In this book, Richard A. Posner examines how judges go about making difficult decisions. Posner argues that they cannot rely on either logic or science, but must fall back on a grab bag of informal methods of reasoning that owe less than one might think to legal training and experience. -- Adapted from Amazon.com summary.
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I remember, but I'm not gonna balk at a long form Posner post. In philosophy of law I was made to read Posner's 'Problems of Jurisprudence'; easily the most challenging read of my admittedly convenient liberal arts education. Rewarding too. But then, if Posner thinks Keynes is a challenge to read...I appreciate his summary.
on “Richard Posner on "How I Became a Keynesian"” ↗The question posed by the article, and reviewed therein -- namely, "what did Posner really think of the law?" -- is comprehensively answered in Posner's own book "The Problems of Jurisprudence." It is an excellent and sadly overlooked work, which contains fascinating comparisons between natural law and positive law. The article makes Posner's support of pro se litigants in his final years…
on “The Mystery of Richard Posner” ↗…people were cast out or destroyed. The railways did contribute to the end of the custom. But this is not simply because rail equipment was too expensive to seize or condemn. Richard Posner, in The Problems of Jurisprudence, notes: > [The law of deodands] eventually became dysfunctional but, as Holmes explained, the old law turned out to have a new use. The victim of a maritime accident may encounter great difficulty in…
on “Deodands put a price on objects that caused death” ↗…generally unconcerned with the strict applicability of the law to the relevant facts." There are two things worth highlighting that the author doesn't really go into. First, as Richard Posner put it in The Problems of Jurisprudence," "Natural Law had more bite in Greek thought than it has in ours." In other words, the law was primarily a manner of sublimating the instincts for revenge and for fair play. It would be quite correct…
on “Telling Stories in Athenian Law [pdf] (2002)” ↗