Karl N. Llewellyn – författare

Karl N. Llewellyn was one of the founders and major figures of legal realism, and his many keen insights have a central place in American law and legal understanding. Key to Llewellyn's thinking was his conception of rules, put forward in his numerous writings and most famously in his often mischaracterized declaration that they are 'pretty playthings'. Previously unpublished, "The Theory of Rules" is the most cogent presentation of his profound and insightful thinking about the life of rules. This book frames the development of Llewellyn's thinking and describes the difference between what rules literally prescribe and what is actually done, with the gap explained by a complex array of practices, conventions, professional skills, and idiosyncrasies, most of which are devoted to achieving a law's larger purpose rather than merely following the letter of a particular rule. Edited, annotated, and with an extensive analytic introduction by leading contemporary legal scholar Frederick Schauer, this rediscovered work contains material not found elsewhere in Llewellyn's writings and will prove a valuable contribution to the existing literature on legal realism.

The Cheyenne Indians, in sharp contrast to other Plains tribes, are renowned for the clear sense of form and structure in their institutions. This cultural trait, together with the colorful background of the Cheyennes, attracted the unique collaboration of a legal theorist and an anthropologist, who, in this volume, provide a definitive picture of the law-ways of a primitive, nonliterate people.This foundational study of primitive law presents the folkways in law of the Cheyennes through the technique of the American case lawyer, adjusted to the requirements of the anthropologist with his scientific understanding of human behavior and realistic sociology. Particularly appealing to the general reader are the law cases themselves. Based on individual episodes that reflect the legal procedure of the Cheyennes over a period of more than sixty years, the cases are heroic narratives in the finest tradition.