. The study of problems concerning prescriptive laws (as against laws of nature, often called descriptive, which are studied by philosophy of science. On ‘natural law’, see LAWS).) There are widely different views about what a law is. Is it...

Veleyet-e faqih literally means "the authority or governance of the jurist" in Arabic and "rule of the religious jurisprudent" ("jurisprudent" referring to one who is learned in law) in Persian. In essence, it...

Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal philosophers, hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions. As jurisprudence has developed,...

INTRODUCTION Does a complete punishment theory require a particular theory of legality, that is, a theory of what makes a valid legal rule valid? I suspect that most punishment theorists' initial response to this question will be contradictory. On one hand, it...

INTRODUCTION Leroy Hendricks is on the verge of release from prison after serving his fifth sentence for child molestation. He candidly tells his court-appointed evaluators that, if released, the only sure way he will stop molesting children is "to die."1 Garry David,...

Authorities did not violate a couple's constitutional right to travel by stopping them from crossing the Mississippi River Bridge to escape the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a federal judge has ruled.Two of the hundreds of people who were not allowed to cross the bridge following...

The federal judiciary will increasingly fail to attract the best-qualified lawyers if judges' pay doesn't improve, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Wednesday."If you become a federal judge in the Southern District of New York (Manhattan), you can't raise a family on what the salary...