Research Handbooks in Legal Theory series – serie

This Research Handbook explores the interactions between law and time, demonstrating how both are pivotal in the organization of human activities, including legal proceedings and societal functions. The book expands upon the structural relationship between law and time, examining how societies and legal systems coordinate around timing conventions and how the use of time constraints can alter litigation and deter socially destructive behavior. Expert contributors evaluate transition and timing rules, analyzing the ‘dilemma of waiting’, delayed implementation, the use of temporary laws in emergency situations, and third-party losses arising from delays. They also investigate practical issues such as mandatory retirement, how statutes of limitations work, and the impact of legal developments over time.Illustrating the importance of time in legal processes and decision-making, the Research Handbook on Law and Time is an essential resource for students and scholars of constitutional and administrative law, legal philosophy, and legal theory. It is also beneficial to policymakers, judges, and practitioners in economics and political science.

This Research Handbook offers unparalleled insights into the large-scale resurgence of interest in Marx and Marxism in recent years, with contributions devoted specifically to Marxist critiques of law, rights, and the state.The Research Handbook brings together thirty-three scholars of Marx, Marxism, and law from around the world to offer theoretically informed introductions to the Marxist tradition of social critique, contemporary Marxist analyses of law and rights, and future orientations of Marxist legal analysis. Chapters testify to the strength of Marxist critical tools for understanding the role of law, rights, and the state in capitalist societies. Exploring Marxist critique across an extraordinarily wide range of scholarlydisciplines, this Research Handbook is a must-read for scholars of law, politics, sociology, philosophy, and political economy who are interested in Marxism. Graduate and advanced undergraduate students in these and related disciplines will also benefit from the Research Handbook.

This Research Handbook examines contemporary animal law and its relationship to the philosophical and legal idea of animal rights. Adopting an inter- and multidisciplinary approach, it explores the role of legal theory, legal practice, strategic litigation and advocacy in the global development of laws protecting animals.Tomasz Pietrzykowski and Birgitta Wahlberg bring together expert contributing authors to discuss interspecies constitutionalizing and the evolution of animal law scholarship. They shed light on jurisprudence and questions of legal status, highlighting key scientific, ethical, economic, religious, and cultural contexts. The Research Handbook covers the relationship between animal rights and human rights, addressing key case studies including animal dignity laws in Switzerland and the legal repercussions for offences against animals in Finland. Ultimately, it illustrates the importance of ongoing professional and scholarly engagement in animal protection.The Research Handbook on Animal Law and Animal Rights is an essential resource for scholars and students of animal law, environmental law, and legal philosophy, as well as for practitioners of law. Its practical dimensions and forward-thinking insights will greatly benefit legal practitioners and officials interested in animal status and protection.

This Research Handbook presents a comprehensive overview of the significance of systems theory for analysing law in modern society. Expert contributors examine key theoretical developments and core approaches to systems theory, illustrating the strengths of this transdisciplinary theoretical framework across research fields and areas of law. Chapters cover a range of areas of law that this approach can be applied to, including constitutional law and constitutionalism, contract law, environmental law, social work and labour law. The Research Handbook draws on detailed case studies to investigate how this theoretical framework can be used in diverse contexts, exploring human rights, hate speech, climate change governance and corruption through this lens. It also highlights the role of systems theory across technology and business, from artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies to illegality in organisations, the regulation of risk and investment arbitration tribunals. This forward-looking Research Handbook will be valuable to students and scholars of systems theory and research methods in law, as well as jurisprudence more widely, as it provides an informative analysis of the latest research and thinking in this dynamic field.

This Research Handbook explores recent developments in legal education and practice. It covers the increasing reliance on technology to teach law and perform legal tasks, including a surge in the use of artificial intelligence (AI), alongside changing definitions of what it means to attain, retain, and use legal knowledge.Filling an important gap in the literature on the topic, expert authors shed light on the uncertain future which awaits law schools and the legal profession, and reconsider the nature, operational dynamics, and remit of the type of knowledge required in the field. Featuring original contributions on key topics, the Handbook provides insights into research methods in law and legal knowledge in theory and practice through philosophical and sociological perspectives. Chapters present theoretical, practical, sociological, comparative, critical, and law and technology approaches and examine analytic jurisprudence to address law reform and legal knowledge of the future.The Research Handbook on Epistemologies of Law is an essential resource for scholars and students of legal philosophy and legal theory. Additionally, practitioners in legal education will also be interested in its study of the ways in which legal knowledge is produced and transmitted in the age of AI.

Critical theory encapsulates the many connections between theory and praxis. This Research Handbook addresses the broad range of these connections in relation to legal thought. Featuring contributions from leading scholars of law and critical theory, the Handbook confronts the logic of the institutional with its specific challenges right across the broad field of legal thought.The Research Handbook initially addresses the question of definition, tracking the origins and development of critical legal theory along its European and North American trajectories. Thematic connections are made between the development of legal theory and other currents of critical thought including feminism, Marxism, critical race theory, varieties of postmodernism, as well as the various 'turns' (ethical, aesthetic, political) of critical legal theory. Finally, particular legal disciplines are examined, including labour, criminal and intellectual property law, exploring what critical approaches reveal about them with the clear focus on opportunities for social transformation.This comprehensive and forward-looking Research Handbook will be of great interest to adherents of critical legal theory and scholars of jurisprudence more widely, as it provides a valuable analysis of the latest research and thinking in this dynamic field.

The Research Handbook on Feminist Jurisprudence surveys feminist theoretical understandings of law, including liberal and radical feminism, as well as socialist, relational, intersectional, post-modern, and pro-sex and queer feminist legal theories.Featuring contributions from a diverse team of prominent scholars, this Research Handbook illuminates the ways in which feminist scholarship has enriched understandings of law's sometimes subordinating structures and the ways in which law can be interpreted or changed so as to promote the equality, liberty, wellbeing, and interests of women. The expert contributors offer a vast range of feminist perspectives on law, including liberal, radical, and post-modern feminism, and explore the implications of these theoretical stances for understandings of the nature of law, legal change, and the relationship between law and politics. Chapters analyse the influence of feminist legal theories on doctrinal areas of law including US constitutional and civil rights law, international law, and various areas of private law.This insightful book will be of interest to law students, legal scholars, and scholars of political and moral philosophy seeking to understand the entire body of feminist legal scholarship from the early 1970s to the present, as well as its variants, and relationships among different theoretical perspectives.Contributors include: S.F. Appleton, K.K. Baker, I. Caglar, M. Chamallas, C.-j. Chen, M.A. Fineman, M.A. Franks, C. Grant Bowman, B.A. Gur, N.D. Hunter, L.C. Ikemoto, O. Kamir, H. Keren, S.A. Law, N. Menon, N. Naffine, J.A. Nice, V.F. Nourse, N. Rimalt, D.E. Roberts, L.A. Rosenbury, J.C. Suk, D. Tuerkheimer, R. West, A.K. Wing, K.A. Yuracko

This thought-provoking Research Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of current research on natural law theory in ethics, politics and law, demonstrating the rigour and versatility of the tradition and offering an up-to-date picture of these ideas in the 21st century. Featuring contributions from leading international scholars in disciplines from law and government to philosophy and religious studies, the Handbook explores both the philosophical foundations of natural law thinking and its practical implications for law, politics and governance. Chapters showcase the breadth and diversity of contemporary natural law thought, going beyond the dominant Catholic and Thomist perspectives to investigate natural law ideas in a variety of religious and cultural traditions, such as Judaism, Islam and Confucianism, as well as African American and feminist theory. The Research Handbook on Natural Law Theory will prove an invaluable resource for scholars and students of law, legal theory, philosophy, politics and government, as well as theology and religious studies, who wish to engage with current thinking on natural law and its relevance to their fields. Legal practitioners and experts in public policy will also find its varied perspectives useful.

This timely Research Handbook examines the key challenges for the governance of biomedicine and the life sciences. It explores the impact of significant political, technological and ecological developments on international governance and considers ethics in times of global crisis.Leading experts discuss the ways in which digitalization and AI have disrupted communication and knowledge infrastructure, while highlighting the threats posed by climate change and biodiversity loss to ecological stability. They investigate how the system of governance by law has been challenged by the erosion of public spaces and democratic political systems, while regulatory tools such as ethics committees, participatory structures and self-regulation are unprepared for emerging issues. The Research Handbook demonstrates the importance of developing novel methodological tools to interpret these problems within the field of bioethics. It further proposes a roadmap for future research and practice, outlining how the life sciences can provide new possibilities for human health and well-being.Scholars and students of law and society, legal philosophy and legal theory will greatly benefit from this illuminating Research Handbook. It is also a useful resource for those studying bioethics, moral philosophy and the social sciences.

This insightful Research Handbook provides a definitive overview of the New Legal Realism (NLR) movement, reaching beyond historical and national boundaries to form new conversations. Drawing on deep roots within the law-and-society tradition, it demonstrates the powerful virtues of new legal realist research and its attention to the challenges of translation between social science and law.Highlighting a contrast with the current Empirical Legal Studies movement, chapters employ a variety of theoretically grounded methods to understand law and address legal problems. They explore an impressive range of contemporary issues including immigration, policing, globalization, legal education, and access to justice, concluding with an examination of how different social science disciplines intersect with NLR.Incorporating global perspectives, the Research Handbook on Modern Legal Realism will be a key resource for scholars and students of legal theory and sociolegal studies. Illuminating the best approaches for combining social science considerations with expert perspectives on legal doctrines, it will also be of interest to practitioners and policy makers working in fields such as criminal and family law.

This illuminating Research Handbook analyses the role that emotions play, and ought to play, in legal reasoning and practice, rejecting the simplistic distinction between reason and emotion.International expert contributors take multidisciplinary approaches, drawing on neuroscience, philosophy, literary theory, psychology, history, and sociology to examine the role of a wide range of emotions across a variety of legal contexts. Chapters consider how the rich tapestry of human emotion impacts legal actors, influences legal doctrine, and shapes the dynamics of legal institutions. Moving beyond legal contexts traditionally considered rife with emotion such as the criminal law and jury trials, the Handbook explores how emotion relates to contracts, property, bankruptcy, international law, and truth and reconciliation commissions. It also reflects on the importance of research methodologies, theories, and techniques for assessing the role of emotion in the legal arena.Surveying the depth and complexity of law and emotion across a panoply of legal actions, institutional contexts, and legal doctrines, this Handbook will be critical reading for academics and students of legal theory and legal philosophy. Its detailed examination of emotions in the practice of private, public, international, and criminal law will also be beneficial for legal officials and practitioners.

This Research Handbook offers unparalleled insights into the large-scale resurgence of interest in Marx and Marxism in recent years, with contributions devoted specifically to Marxist critiques of law, rights, and the state.The Research Handbook brings together thirty-three scholars of Marx, Marxism, and law from around the world to offer theoretically informed introductions to the Marxist tradition of social critique, contemporary Marxist analyses of law and rights, and future orientations of Marxist legal analysis. Chapters testify to the strength of Marxist critical tools for understanding the role of law, rights, and the state in capitalist societies. Exploring Marxist critique across an extraordinarily wide range of scholarlydisciplines, this Research Handbook is a must-read for scholars of law, politics, sociology, philosophy, and political economy who are interested in Marxism. Graduate and advanced undergraduate students in these and related disciplines will also benefit from the Research Handbook.

This comprehensive Research Handbook provides an unparalleled overview of contemporary private law theory. Featuring original contributions by leading experts in the field, its extensive examinations of the core areas of contracts, property and torts are complemented by an exploration of a breadth of topics that cross the divide between private and public law, including labor law and corporate law. Beginning with a nuanced consideration of the ways in which the private/public distinction has been defined and discussed over time, the Research Handbook investigates and compares differing viewpoints on the concept of private law. Chapters explore key issues in the theory of private law from legal, economic, philosophical, political, feminist, historical and sociological perspectives, utilising a rich diversity of methodological approaches. The contributors also offer a variety of views on the future of private law and private theory.The Research Handbook on Private Law Theory will be an essential resource for legal thinkers, in particular scholars and graduate students working in any area of private law. Its varied perspectives on the subject will also be of interest to philosophers, political scientists, economists and sociologists.

The Research Handbook on Law and Utilitarianism sheds light on contemporary legal culture and the ways in which it interacts with theories of justice. Guillaume Tusseau brings together an interdisciplinary range of scholars to analyse the utilitarian standpoint on legal disciplines and legal governance, as well as the contribution of utilitarian arguments to legal debates.The Research Handbook addresses the practical contribution of utilitarian thinkers and politics on the development and reform of specific branches of law, including private, criminal, constitutional, administrative, procedural and human rights. Chapters also assess the importance of utilitarianism in emerging legal debates on topics such as LGBT rights, feminism, transhumanism, migration, public health and environmental law. Ultimately, the authors critically analyse the relevance of utilitarianism in contemporary legal culture, providing an intellectual and path-breaking strategy to debate legal governance and legal ideology.Addressing crucial jurisprudential controversies, this innovative Research Handbook is vital for students and scholars of legal philosophy, law and society, and political theory. It will also appeal to legal practitioners interested in the ethics of law, as well as specialists on deontological issues.

Critical theory encapsulates the many connections between theory and praxis. This Research Handbook addresses the broad range of these connections in relation to legal thought. Featuring contributions from leading scholars of law and critical theory, the Handbook confronts the logic of the institutional with its specific challenges right across the broad field of legal thought.The Research Handbook initially addresses the question of definition, tracking the origins and development of critical legal theory along its European and North American trajectories. Thematic connections are made between the development of legal theory and other currents of critical thought including feminism, Marxism, critical race theory, varieties of postmodernism, as well as the various 'turns' (ethical, aesthetic, political) of critical legal theory. Finally, particular legal disciplines are examined, including labour, criminal and intellectual property law, exploring what critical approaches reveal about them with the clear focus on opportunities for social transformation.This comprehensive and forward-looking Research Handbook will be of great interest to adherents of critical legal theory and scholars of jurisprudence more widely, as it provides a valuable analysis of the latest research and thinking in this dynamic field.

This Research Handbook offers a comprehensive study of jurilinguistics that not only presents the latest international research findings among academics and practitioners, but also provides a new approach to the phenomena and nature of communicative flexibility, legal genres, vulnerability of interlingual legal communication, and the cultural landscape of legal translation.Chapters explore the theory of jurilinguistics investigating the features of a broad range of national discourses. Offering a unique perspective on the complex and dynamic relationship between language and the law, the impressive selection of contributors discuss the efficiency, flexibility and vulnerabilities of communication in legal settings. Anne Wagner and Aleksandra Matulewska approach the topic from a multidimensional standpoint, dealing with a myriad of topics, notably the general theory of jurilinguistics, the genres and characteristics of legal language, and the improvement of the quality of legal language.This discerning Research Handbook will appeal to a variety of academics and researchers in law, translation, jurisprudence, applied linguistics, and rhetoric, looking to broaden their understanding of jurilinguistics as an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural operation. It will also serve as both a theoretical and practical resource for lawyers, legislators, lawyer-linguists, and legal translation specialists alike.

This comprehensive Research Handbook explores the wide variety of work conducted in legal semiotics, providing a thorough understanding of how the law works through signs and symbols. Demonstrating that the law is a strategical system of fluctuating signs, contributors critically analyse the ever-evolving conceptualisations of law and legal discourse.Bringing together leading international experts, this Research Handbook focuses on the material, everyday forms of law comprised by non-verbal legal semiotics. Contributors conduct culturally nuanced semiotic analyses of the modern world, covering topics from COVID-19, religion, and human rights, to comic books and music. Chapters consider the foundations of semiotics, as well as the philosophy of law, identifying the cross-cultural similarities in how legal semiotics and visual legal semiotics intersect. Ultimately, the Research Handbook demonstrates that the law is in a state of perpetual flux, with many unique dimensions only made visible by semiotic analysis.The Research Handbook on Legal Semiotics will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of law, jurisprudence, legal culture, linguistics, and semiotics. It will also be an important guide for legal practitioners seeking to better understand the nuances of the legal system. >

Adopting an evolutionary perspective, this Research Handbook presents novel and cutting-edge insights into the interdisciplinary field of legal evolution. Engaging with various scientific approaches, it provides a versatile analysis of legal evolution, examining the field as a whole as well as in the context of specific branches of law.Featuring meritorious contributions from eminent scholars, the Research Handbook navigates the two different yet interconnected currents of legal evolution. Chapters first offer a reflective study of the history of legal systems, concepts and doctrines which sets out the regularities, mechanisms, and patterns in the process of transformations that such systems, concepts and doctrines undergo. It moves on to explore various legal problems through the prism of evolutionary anthropology which rests on the assumption that evolutionary biology and psychology provide valuable insights into human nature.Both stimulating and authoritative, the Research Handbook on Legal Evolution is an indispensable read for researchers, academics and students in law, legal philosophy and theory, and political philosophy.

This Research Handbook presents thirty-three original contributions from leading experts around the globe on all aspects of legal argumentation. Each chapter combines theoretical and practical perspectives to introduce and develop its topic.The volume explores the connections between legal argumentation, general jurisprudence, and argumentation theory. The result: the most detailed, comprehensive, and international overview of the field to date. The Research Handbook is organised into five parts. The first examines the core elements of legal argumentation. The second analyses many types of argument commonly used in law. The third situates legal argumentation within broader argumentation theory. The fourth examines its links with general jurisprudence. The fifth and final part takes a more holistic approach to what is involved in judging well.This Research Handbook will interest not only students and scholars of legal argumentation, legal philosophers, and argumentation theorists, but also lawyers, judges, and other practitioners seeking to better understand their art.