Country United States Publication date 1977 ISBN 0-674-86710-6 Subject Philosophy of law | Language English Pages xv, 293 p Originally published 1977 Publisher Harvard University Press OCLC 2847963 | |
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Media type Print (Hardcover and Paperback) Similar Works by Ronald Dworkin, Jurisprudence books | ||
Taking Rights Seriously is a 1977 book on philosophy of law by Ronald Dworkin. In this landmark book, Dworkin argues against the dominant philosophy of Anglo-American legal positivism as presented by H. L. A. Hart in The Concept of Law (1961) and utilitarianism by proposing that rights of the individual against the state exist outside of the written law and function as "trumps" against the interests or wishes of the majority.
Most of the book's chapters are revised versions of previously published papers. In addition to his critique of legal positivism and utilitarian ethics, Dworkin includes important discussions of constitutional interpretation, judicial discretion, civil disobedience, reverse discrimination, John Rawls' theory of justice, and the Hart-Devlin debate on legislating morality.
A revised edition of book was published in 1978 and includes a lengthy reply by Dworkin to his critics.