In Philosophy of Law, Andrei Marmor provides a comprehensive analysis of contemporary debates about the fundamental nature of law--an issue that has been at the heart of legal philosophy for centuries. What the law is seems to be a matter of fact, but this fact has normative significance: it tells people what they ought to do. Is the normative content of a law entirely determined by the facts that make it a law? Are there some normative moral constraints on what the law can be? And can we fully characterize and define the law without assuming a moral conception about what the law ought to be? Finally, is the philosophy of law about describing what law is, or prescribing what it should be?

Marmor argues that the myriad questions raised by the factual and normative features of law actually depend on the possibility of reduction--whether the legal domain can be explained in terms of something else, more foundational in nature. In addition to exploring the major issues in contemporary legal thought, Philosophy of Law provides a critical analysis of the people and ideas that have dominated the field in past centuries. It will be essential reading for anyone curious about the nature of law.

*安德瑞·马默（Andrei Marmor），美国南加州大学法学院法学教授，法学与哲学研究中心主任。英国牛津大学法学博士，师从拉兹。在法律道德性与政治学之间的关系问题上著述颇丰，著有《社会惯习—从语言到法律》（Social Conventions ： From Language to Law） （普林斯顿大学出版社2009年版）、《解释与法律理论》（Interpretation and Legal Theory）（牛津大学出版社1992年初版；哈特出版社2005年第2版）、《法哲学》（Philosophy of Law）（普林斯顿大学出版社2011版）等及大量学术论文。

译者简介：

孙海波，江苏徐州人，北京大学法学院2012级博士研究生，主攻英美法律哲学、司法制度及法律方法，先后在《法律科学》、《法制与社会发展》、《法学论坛》等学术刊物上发表论文十余篇，部分文章被《中国社会科学文摘》等转摘或转载。

王进，陕西西安人，中国政法大学法学理论专业2012级博士研究生，以色列耶路撒冷希伯来大学联合培养博士研究生，主要研究英美法理学、正义理论及政治哲学。在《法哲学与法社会学论丛》、《法学教育研究》等刊物发表译文多篇。