Institutions of Law marks the long awaited definitive statement of Sir Neil MacCormick's distinctive theory of law as 'institutional normative order'. It takes account of recent developments in the sociology of law to provide a rigorous analysis of the role of law in our society and shows how law creates the conditions for social peace and a thriving economy. In doing so, Institutions of Law fills the need for a twenty-first century introduction to legal theory, such as was achieved in the last century by H.L.A. Hart's The Concept of Law.

The late Professor Sir Neil MacCormick was the Leverhulme Personal Research Professor and Regius Professor of Public Law and the Law of Nature and Nations, the University of Edinburgh

• Preface


• Acknowledgements


• Part I: Norm, Institution and Order


• 1: On Normative Order


• 2: On Institutional Order


• 3: Law and the Constitutional State


• 4: A Problem: Rules or Habits?


• Part II: Legal Positions and Relations


• 5: On Persons


• 6: Wrongs and Duties


• 7: Rights and Obligations


• 8: Legal Relations and Things: Property


• 9: Legal Powers and Validity


• Part III: Law State and Civil Society


• 10: Powers and Public Law: Law and Politics


• 11: Constraints on Power: Fundamental Rights


• 12: Criminal Law and Civil Society: Law and Morality


• 13: Private Law and Civil Society: Law and Economy


• Part IV: Law, Value and Method


• 14: Positive Law and Moral Autonomy


• 15: On Law and Justice


• 16: Laws and Values: Reflections on Method