Taking up a single question - "What does it mean to say that a proposition of law is true?" - this book advances a major new account of truth in law. Drawing upon the later philosophy of Wittgenstein, as well as more recent postmodern theory of the relationship between language, meaning, and the world, Patterson examines leading contemporary jurisprudential approaches to this question and finds them flawed in similar and previously unnoticed ways. Despite surface differences, the most widely discussed accounts of legal meaning - from moral realism to interpretivism - each commit themselves, Patterson argues, to a defective notion of reference in accounting for the truth of legal propositions. Tracing this common truth-conditional perspective - wherein propositions of law are true in virtue of some condition, be it a moral essence, a social fact, or communal agreement - to its source in modernism, Patterson develops an alternative (postmodern) account of legal justification, one in which linguistic practice - the use of forms of legal argument - holds the key to legal meaning. A work of provocative scope, argued with uncommon clarity, Law and Truth will interest legal theorists, philosophers, and anyone else concerned with the implications of postmodern thought for jurisprudence.
Industry Reviews
"Law & Truth is one of the most significant books on jurisprudence to be published in recent years."--Notre Dame Law Review
"Patterson's project succeeds."--Columbia Law Review
"An invaluable addition to the literature on philosophical realism, language philosophy, and legal philosophy."--Choice
"An excellent compendium of contemporary views on the epistemological soundness of contemporary theory of jurisprudence....[Includes] two superlative [chapters] on the jurisprudential notions of Ronald Dworkin and Stanley Fish. This thorough ventilation of the claims and pretentions of these two eminent jurists brings readers... to the forefront of controversy in the philosophy of law and related philosophical disciplines.... The concluding chapters...offer
Patterson's own claim that truth is best seen as a linguistic practice among competently trained communicators.... An invaluable addition to the literature on philosophical realism, language philosophy
and legal philosophy."--Choice
"Patterson's book is an important piece of work on a topic fundamental to legal theory and currently of great interest in scholarly circles. Professor Patterson addresses large and difficult issues of metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of language, which many believe to lie at the foundations of law and legal reasoning."--Gerald J. Postema, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
"Law & Truth is one of the most significant books on jurisprudence to be published in recent years."--Notre Dame Law Review
"Patterson's project succeeds."--Columbia Law Review
"An invaluable addition to the literature on philosophical realism, language philosophy, and legal philosophy."--Choice
"An excellent compendium of contemporary views on the epistemological soundness of contemporary theory of jurisprudence....[Includes] two superlative [chapters] on the jurisprudential notions of Ronald Dworkin and Stanley Fish. This thorough ventilation of the claims and pretentions of these two eminent jurists brings readers... to the forefront of controversy in the philosophy of law and related philosophical disciplines.... The concluding chapters...offer
Patterson's own claim that truth is best seen as a linguistic practice among competently trained communicators.... An invaluable addition to the literature on philosophical realism, language philosophy
and legal philosophy."--Choice
"Patterson's book is an important piece of work on a topic fundamental to legal theory and currently of great interest in scholarly circles. Professor Patterson addresses large and difficult issues of metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of language, which many believe to lie at the foundations of law and legal reasoning."--Gerald J. Postema, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
"Patterson writes with astonishing breadth and clarity about every issue facing anyone thinking seriously about contemporary law and the possibility of making 'true' statements about what law requires."--Sanford Levinson, University of Texas at Austin School of Law
"This book constitutes one of the best overviews of the important recent debate over legal justification, providing a fascinating survey of discussion of meaning and truth as it lays the groundwork for Patterson's original and provocative answer to the question, 'What does it mean to say that a proposition of law is true?' Through its deep acquaintance with both Wittgenstein and postmodern theory, it is a book sure to stimulate and raise the level of debate
among legal and political philosophers."--James Tully, McGill University
"Patterson's title literally captures the agenda of this lucid and tightly reasoned book; philosophical theories of truth can inform and enrich jurisprudential theories of law."--William Eskridge, "Georgetown University Law Center
"Law and Truth is a valuable contribution to legal theory."--Michigan Law Review
"...incisive and succinct postmodern critique of contemporary legal theory..."--Ethics
"Law and Truth, Patterson's most ambitious work to date, is both an intellectual tour de force and a good, old-fashioned street brawl."--Yale Law Journal
