The Long Arc of Legality

David Dyzenhaus is University Professor of Law and Philosophy, University of Toronto, Canada. He works on legality under stress, an interest that he developed as a law student in apartheid South Africa. As one of the leading theorists of the rule of law, his work both reshapes philosophy of law and connects its most abstract concerns to the practical dilemmas human rights lawyers face.

• 1. The Puzzle of Very Unjust Law I: Hart and Dworkin; 2. The Puzzle of Very Unjust Law II: Hobbes; 3. The Constitution of Legal Authority/The Authority of Legal Constitutions; 4. The Janus-Faced Constitution; 5. The Politics of Legal Space; 6. Legality's Promise; Appendix I. Exclusive and Inclusive Legal Positivism; Appendix II. Kantian Private Law Theory; Appendix III. John Finnis and 'Schmittean Logic'.

'Just when many legal philosophers were inclined to give in and accept the view long held by most other philosophers and legal theorists that the traditional debate about the nature of law was stalled in sectarian squabbling and anyway of dubious importance, David Dyzenhaus's magnificent book will have us starting all over again. In this creative and original rereading of the main texts, especially those of Hobbes, Hart, and Kelsen, Dyzenhaus brings the subject, and its importance, to life again. His interpretations of all three authors are controversial, but the book is the more interesting and generative for that. Dyzenhaus orchestrates a lively engagement among his predecessors-on his terms, not theirs-and an original and important theory of legal authority emerges organically in the process.' Liam Murphy, Professor of Law, Philosophy, New York University