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This book expands the argument introduced in the Clarendon Lectures in Law presented at Oxford University in the fall of 1998. It introduces and attempts to sustain two different kinds of arguments; the aim is not only to defend a range of views of substantive issues in legal theory, but also to vindicate by example a certain methodological approach to such issues — an approach whose fundamental commitments are those of philosophical pragmatism. The book advances three main theses. Part I defends the view that the core of tort law is best understood as embodying the principle of corrective justice. Part II defends a version of inclusive legal positivism. Part III defends what has been called ‘descriptive jurisprudence’.

Drawing on philosophical pragmatism, the author formulates a framework for a realistic approach to socio-legal theory. The strengths of this approach are contrasted with that of the major schools of socio-legal theory by application to core issues in this area. Thus the author explores the problematic state of socio-legal studies, the relationship between behaviour and meaning, the notion of legal ideology, the problem of indeterminacy in rule following and application, and the structure of judicial decision making. These issues are tackled in a clear and concise fashion while articulating a social theory of law that draws equally from legal theory and socio-legal theory.

In the last thirty years, as a result of a neoliberal ideology that extolled so-called free markets and demonized government, America has lost its grasp on its core principle – democracy. Democracy, the ability of all Americans to participate freely and equally in the political and economic affairs of the country, suffered demonstrable losses. Economically, over the period, the vast majority of Americans have been made worse off as a result of the largest redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top in American history. Politically, partisan gridlock and sound-bite politics have hampered efforts to seek fairer taxes, responsive and effective regulation, reliable health care, and better education, among other needs. This book explores this last generation of neoliberal government and concludes that those democratic losses can be regained. We know from experience that philosophical pragmatism and political progressivism express the country's creedal democratic values. More simply, our country's political commitment to expanding liberty, equality, and distributive fairness – bedrock values of modern democracy – is historically embedded and has yielded measurable gains. Democracy, American-style, outlawed legally sanctioned racism and sexism, fashioned the American Dream, and created the middle class, among other gains, while at the same time the United States became a global leader in economic and military power. More particularly, those gains were realized through an active, robust, and participatory government. As in the past, a sound regulatory state, while not perfect and in need of reform, is the vehicle to achieve the Constitution's goal of “a more perfect union.”