A Life of H. L. A. Hart: The Nightmare and the Noble Dream

by Nicola Lacey

Overview

H.L.A. Hart was the pre-eminent legal philosopher of the twentieth century. As a scholar he single-handedly reinvented the philosophy of law and revolutionized our understanding of law as a social institution. Hart's approach to legal philosophy was at once disarmingly simple and breathtakingly ambitious, combining the insights of the Utilitarian tradition and the new linguistic philosophy of J.L. Austin and Ludwig Wittgenstein. He sought to elucidate a concept of law that would be of relevance to all forms of law, wherever or whenever they arose.

This book is both an intellectual and a psychological biography, following his life from modest origins as the son of Jewish tailor parents in Yorkshire to worldwide fame as the most influential English-speaking legal theorist of the post-War era. It traces his successive metamorphoses; from Yorkshire schoolboy to Oxford scholar, successful barrister, intelligence officer, philosopher, and, finally, Professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford.

Nicola Lacey draws upon Hart's previously unpublished diaries and letters to reveal a complex interior life. Outwardly successful, Hart was in fact tormented by doubts about his intellectual abilities, his sexual identity and his capacity to form close relationships. Her biography also sheds fascinating light on the origins of his ideas, and assesses his overall contribution to the philosophy of law. Above all, it is a chronicle of a life which made an impact far greater than many of us realize.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199202775
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	06/22/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	456
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 6.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Nicola Lacey is Professor of Criminal Law and Legal Theory at the London School of Economics and Adjunct Professor of Social and Political Theory at the Research School of Social Sciences of the Australian National University. She is a Fellow of the British Academy.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations

Editorial Reviews

"A brilliant mix of tightly reported intimate biography and expert intellectual assessment."—Carlin Romano, The Chronicle of Higher Education

"This fascinating and touching biographys secret lies in a unique intergenerational encounter that turned into a rich, albeit posthumous, human relationship between one of the twentieth century's most brilliant legal philosophers and a younger fellow jurisprude who is most probably one of the most perceptive feminist legal theorists of her generation."—German Law Journal

"Nicola Lacey's biography of H.L.A. Hart offers a wonderful sense of what it was like to be an English legal academic in the post-war years, of how work and life might have interacted to produce serious scholarship."—John Henry Schlegel, State University of New York at Buffalo

"The fascinating biography of a complex and brilliant man. Lacey's account vividly recreates the postwar Oxford climate in philosophy and jurisprudence, and paints Hart's life inside and outside the university with sensitivity, wit, and authority."—Simon Blackburn, Professor of Philosophy, University of Cambridge

"And the wonderful thing is Professor Lacey never sells Hart s ideas short, never underestimates the content of his work both as a jurist and as a public intellectual even while she brings his family, his circle of friends, and his personality to life. We end up learning as much about secondary rules in the law as we learn about wartime espionage and the lucid prose of this biography makes them both into an enjoyable and profitable experience."—Jeremy Waldron, Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Law and Philosophy, Columbia University

"A fine piece of work and a good read. Lacey has left absolutely no stones unturned in her search for the writing of this life. The end product is as good as a biography of a distinguished as can beand one that provides a fascinating window into the world of the Oxford dons back in what now seems their golden age."
A.W. Brian Simpson, Michigan Law Review

From the Publisher