Law, Rights and Discourse: The Legal Philosophy of Robert Alexy (Legal Theory Today)

A philosophical system is not what one would expect to find in the work of a contemporary legal thinker. Robert Alexy's work counts as a striking exception. Over the past 28 years, Alexy has been developing, with remarkable clarity and consistency, a systematic philosophy covering most of the key areas of legal philosophy. His work admirably combines the rigor of analytical philosophy with a repertoire of humanitarian ideals reflecting the tradition of the Geisteswissenschaften, rendering it one of the most far-reaching and influential legal philosophies in our time. Law, Rights and Discourse has been designed with two focuses. The first is to reflect the breadth of Alexy's philosophical system, as well as the varieties of jurisprudential and philosophical scholarship in the last three decades on which his work has had an impact. The second is to provide for a critical exchange between Alexy and a number of specialists in the field, with an eye to identifying new areas of inquiry and offering a new impetus to the discourse theory of law. With its range of coverage, Law, Rights and Discourse will become a standard work of reference for anyone working in legal theory in general, and the discourse theory of law in particular.