DIMENSIONS OF POLITICS AND ENGLISH JURISPRUDENCE Understandings of law and politics are intrinsically bound up with broadervisionsofthehumancondition.SeanCoylearguesforarenewed engagement with the juridical and political philosophies of the Western intellectualtradition,andtakesupquestionsponderedbyAristotle,Plato, Augustine, Aquinas and Hobbes in seeking a deeper understanding of law, politics, freedom, justice and order. Criticizing modern theories for their failure to engage with fundamental questions, he explores the profoundconnectionsbetweenjusticeandorderandraisestheneglected question of whether human beings in all their imperfection can ever achieve truly justorder in this life. Above all, he confronts the question ofwhethertheopensocietyisthenaturalhomeofliberalswhohavegiven up faith in human progress (there are no ideal societies), or whether liberalpoliticalorderisitselftheidealsociety? seancoyleisProfessorofEnglishLawsattheUniversityofBirmingham. DIMENSIONS OF POLITICS AND ENGLISH JURISPRUDENCE SEAN COYLE cambridge university press Cambridge,NewYork,Melbourne,Madrid,CapeTown, Singapore,SãoPaulo,Delhi,MexicoCity CambridgeUniversityPress TheEdinburghBuilding,CambridgeCB28RU,UK PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyCambridgeUniversityPress,NewYork www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9780521196598 ©SeanCoyle2013 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexceptionand totheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithout thewrittenpermissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2013 PrintedandboundintheUnitedKingdombytheMPGBooksGroup AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata Coyle,Sean. DimensionsofpoliticsandEnglishjurisprudence/SeanCoyle. pages cm Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-0-521-19659-8(Hardback) 1. Jurisprudence–GreatBritain. 2. Jurisprudence–UnitedStates. 3. Law–Philosophy. 4. Liberalism. I. Title. KD640.C692013 349.41–dc23 2012047170 ISBN978-0-521-19659-8Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceor accuracyofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredto inthispublication,anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuch websitesis,orwillremain,accurateorappropriate. To my parents ‘Ithinkwehaverealprogressinphilosophywhenadisputantthinks littleofvictoryascomparedwiththediscoveryofwhatisjustandtrue’ –attributedtoLicentius (SaintAugustine,ContraAcademicos,Bk1.3) CONTENTS Preface ix Introduction 1 part i. Jurisprudence 19 1. Jurisprudence and the liberal order 21 2. Concept and reality in jurisprudence 41 3. On the ‘Protestant’ inheritance of juridical thought 58 4. The form and direction of Anglo-American jurisprudence 77 5. Three approaches to jurisprudence 98 part ii. Understanding the present 119 6. Authority and tradition: visions of law and politics 121 7. Legalism and modernity I: Identifying and understanding the problem 149 8. Legalism and modernity II: Reflections upon the problem 167 9. Political thought and the ‘well-ordered society’ 188 10. The limits of legal ideologies 209 11. Conservatism and its dilemmas 233 12. Liberal jurisprudence and its order 251 vii viii contents part iii. Justice 273 13. Justice without mercy 275 14. Justice and moral judgment 298 15. Fallen justice 320 16. Freedom and justice in a democratic age 344 Bibliography of Works Cited 365 Index 378