Jurist in Context
A Memoir

A leading English jurist reflects on the development of his thoughts and writings in legal theory over sixty years.

William Twining (Author)

9781108703673, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 14 February 2019

412 pages, 11 b/w illus. 8 colour illus.
24.8 x 17.4 x 2.2 cm, 0.75 kg

'The book advances a conception of Jurisprudence that contributes to the academic discipline of Law in several ways, and it provides a vivid and often amusing context for all of William's writings.' David Sugarman, Journal of Law and Society

This is the engaging and accessible intellectual memoir of a leading jurist. It tells the story of the development of his thoughts and writings over sixty years in the context of three continents and addresses the complexities of decolonisation, the troubles in Belfast, the contextual turn in legal studies, rethinking evidence and the implications of globalisation which have been central to his life and research. In propounding his original views as an enthusiastic self-styled 'legal nationalist', Twining maps his ideas of law as a unique discipline, which pervades all spheres of social and political life while combining theory and practice, concepts and values, facts and rules in uniquely fascinating ways. Addressed to academic lawyers generally and to other non-specialists, this story brings out the importance and fascinations of a discipline that has changed, expanded and diversified in the post-War years, with an eye to its future development and potential.

1. Jurisprudence: a personal view
2. Childhood and schooling (1934–52)
3. Oxford and after (1952–57)
4. University of Chicago I (1957–58)
5. Khartoum (1958–61)
6. Dar-es-Salaam (1961–65)
7. Llewellyn again: American interludes (Chicago 1963–64
Yale 1965
Philadelphia 1971)
8. The Queen's University Belfast (1966–72)
9. Normative jurisprudence
10. Standpoint, questioning, and 'thinking like a lawyer'
11. Social and legal rules
12. Warwick (1972–82)
13. Jurisprudence, law in context, realism, doctrine
14. Rethinking evidence
15. Bentham's College (1983–99)
16. Four contrasting relationships (Bentham, Dworkin, MacCormick, Anderson)
17. Legal education
18. Globalisation and law
19. General jurisprudence
20. Retirement
Notes on the images
Endnotes.

Subject Areas: Legal history [LAZ], Jurisprudence & general issues [LA], Social & political philosophy [HPS]