Document Type
Book Review
Publication Date
2018
Publication Information
71 Rev. Metaphysics 596 (2018) (book review).
Abstract
SCHAUER, Frederick. The Force of Law. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2015. xiv + 239 pp. Cloth, $35.00.
So long as our task is, Schauer writes, "the pursuit of law's essential properties in all possible legal systems in all possible worlds, there would be little point in being concerned with force, sanctions, coercion." But perhaps there is another, equally important, task to perform. Schauer writes that one could view his book as an "attempt [] to account for what seems to be an obviously important fact about the world: law is commonly and valuably coercive." Indeed, "[i]t has long seemed self-evident - at least to ordinary people - that coercion, sanctions, punishment, and brute force lie at the heart of the idea of law."
Recommended Citation
Gerard V. Bradley,
The Force of Law,
71 Rev. Metaphysics 596 (2018) (book review)..
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/1860