Z. Bankowski - Böcker

"The Judicial Application of Law" is an contribution to analytical jurisprudence. It gives an account of all that is involved in the idea of "applying" law as this is carried out by judges. Thus it explores analytically a vital idea for our understanding of legality as a value to which systems of government aspire. This is achieved by the construction and examination of models of the various steps involved in judicial decision making, including elements both of interpretation and of fact finding, and by the exploration of various possible ideologies of the application of law. The book takes as its main material for analysis statute-based legal systems in the form these took within socialist legal systems prior to the recent revolutions, being based principally on the law of Poland up to 1989.

This volume represents a collaboration between a wide range of disciplines and countries. 14 papers, together with a long analytical introduction by the editors, were selected from the contributions of legal theorists, computer scientists, philosophers and logicians who were members of an international working group supported by the European Commission. The group was mandated to work towards determining how far the law is amenable to formal modelling, and in what ways computers might assist legal thinking and practice. The book is the result of discussions held by the group over two and half years. It should help students and researchers from different backgrounds to focus on a common set of topics of increasing general interest. It embodies the results of work in progress and suggests many issues for further discussion. This should be a useful text for undergraduate and graduate courses in law, philosophy and computer science departments, as well as for those interested in the place of computers in legal practice, especially at the international level.

The aim of this book is to explore what it means to live a life under the law. Does a life of law preclude love and does a life of love preclude law? Part of the theme of the book is that social questions also raise individual moral and ethical questions; that to live lawfully implies both a question of how I should live in my relations with my fellows and how society should be organised. These questions must be looked at together. The book explores these questions and in looking at the articulation of law and love touches upon debates in personal morality, aesthetics, epistemology, social and political organisation, institutional design and the form and substance of law. It raises questions that are of interest to students and those working in law, theology, and social and political theory.

The Judicial Application of Law is an important contribution to analytical jurisprudence. It gives a thorough account of all that is involved in the idea of 'applying' law as this is carried out by judges. Thus it explores analytically a vital idea for our understanding of legality as a value to which systems of government aspire. This is achieved by the rigorous construction and examination of models of the various steps involved in judicial decision making, including elements both of interpretation and of fact finding, and by the exploration of various possible ideologies of the application of law. The book takes as its main material for analysis statute-based legal systems in the form these took within socialist legal systems prior to the recent revolutions, being based principally on the law of Poland up to 1989. This is the last work, posthumously translated, by the most distinguished analytical jurisprudent of modern Poland.

Informatics and the Foundations of Legal Reasoning represents a close collaboration between a wide range of disciplines and countries. Fourteen papers, together with a long analytical introduction by the editors, were selected from the contributions of legal theorists, computer scientists, philosophers and logicians who were members of an International Working Group supported by the European Commission. The Group was mandated to work towards determining how far the law is amenable to formal modeling, and in what ways computers might assist legal thinking and practice. The book is the result of discussions held by the Group over two and half years. It will help students and researchers from different backgrounds to focus on a common set of topics of increasing general interest. It embodies the results of work in progress and suggests many issues for further discussion. A stimulating text for undergraduate and graduate courses in law, philosophy and computer science departments, as well as for those interested in the place of computers in legal practice, especially at the international level.