Fernando Atria is a Professor in the School of Law at the Universidad de Talca in Chile.

Overall the book is valuable for anyone interested in legal theory. John G. Bennett Philosophical Books April 2004

• Part 1 Constitutive rules, institutions and the weightier matters of the law: two concepts of rules; the game-analogy; insulation; a general theory of institutional facts; the game of law; law as institutional fact; two models of institution; the weightier matters of the law; a short preview. Part 2 Gapless sources: the sources thesis and the problem of authority; legal indeterminacy; hard and clear cases; on gaps in the law. Part 3 Meaning and application: playing in railway stations; Hart on open texture; principles, rules and exclusionary reasons. Part 4 "Fuller vs Fuller": is defeasibility a non-legal, moral problem?; "my code is lost"; conclusion. Part 5 Nothing at all or nothing exceptional: exceptions and rules; the circumstances of defeasibility; normality and defeasibility; Hart on defeasibility. Part 6 A Roman puzzle: Roman common sense; "locatio conductio" and the protection of the lessee; "permutatio" and "emptio vendito"; "regula iuris". Part 7 Legal reasoning and legal theory revisited: deductive reasoning and legal argumentation; rules as entrenched generalizations; legal reasoning, rules and sources. Part 8 The powers of application: the formality of law; an image of law; images of law.

Fernando Atria is a Professor in the School of Law at the Universidad de Talca in Chile.

Overall the book is valuable for anyone interested in legal theory. John G. Bennett Philosophical Books April 2004

• Part 1 Constitutive rules, institutions and the weightier matters of the law: two concepts of rules; the game-analogy; insulation; a general theory of institutional facts; the game of law; law as institutional fact; two models of institution; the weightier matters of the law; a short preview. Part 2 Gapless sources: the sources thesis and the problem of authority; legal indeterminacy; hard and clear cases; on gaps in the law. Part 3 Meaning and application: playing in railway stations; Hart on open texture; principles, rules and exclusionary reasons. Part 4 "Fuller vs Fuller": is defeasibility a non-legal, moral problem?; "my code is lost"; conclusion. Part 5 Nothing at all or nothing exceptional: exceptions and rules; the circumstances of defeasibility; normality and defeasibility; Hart on defeasibility. Part 6 A Roman puzzle: Roman common sense; "locatio conductio" and the protection of the lessee; "permutatio" and "emptio vendito"; "regula iuris". Part 7 Legal reasoning and legal theory revisited: deductive reasoning and legal argumentation; rules as entrenched generalizations; legal reasoning, rules and sources. Part 8 The powers of application: the formality of law; an image of law; images of law.