More has been said about the Hart-Fuller debate than can be considered healthy or productive even within the precious world of jurisprudential scholarship - too much philosophising about how law has revelled in its own abstractness and narrowness. But the mission of this book is distinctly and determinedly different - it is not to rework these already-rehashed ideas, but to reject them entirely.
Rather than add to the massive jurisprudential literature that has been generated by all and sundry, the book criticises and abandons the project that Hart and Fuller set in motion. It contends that the turn that was taken in 1957 has led down a series of cul-de-sacs, blind alleys, and dead-ends to nowhere useful or illuminating. It is more than past time to leave their debate behind and strike out in an entirely new and more promising direction. The book insists that not only law, but also all theorising about law, is political in all its derivations, dimensions, and directions.

Allan C Hutchinson is Distinguished Research Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto, Canada. He holds an LLB from the University of London, an LLM and LLD from the University of Manchester, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a Barrister of Gray's Inn and of the Bar of Ontario.
He has been a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University since 1982. During that time, he has also held a variety of visiting appointments around the world, including at the Universities of Wales, London, Sydney, Monash, and Toronto. He was a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School in 2007. He is appointed to the position of Distinguished Research Professor at York University, is elected to the Royal Society of Canada, and was awarded the University-wide Teaching Award. Allan is a legal theorist of international repute. He has published and/or edited over 20 books, has contributed many chapters in books and numerous articles in the world's leading law reviews and is a regular contributor to the media.

1. 1957 and All that: A Year of Living Jurisprudentially
A Holmesian Challenge
A Harvard Audience
A Principled Chorus
A Critical Turn
Conclusion

2. Looking Back and Forward: The Ground Zero of Legal Theory
Hart's Provocation
A Fuller Effort
And the Beat Goes On
A More Personal Appreciation
Only the Odious
Conclusion

3. A Philosophical State of Mind: The Local Limits of Analytical Truths
An Analytical Agenda
Failing Globally
Working Locally
Razzle-Dazzle
Ours and Everyone Else's
Going Global
Conclusion

4. Legality from a Positivist Outlook: Of Social Facts and Moral Fancies
The Positivist Project
The Facts of the Matter
Beyond All Recognition
Separation Anxiety
Soft and Hard Responses
Conclusion

5. From Validity to Legitimacy: Exploring Law's Morality
Morality, Values and Other Judgments
A Procedural Hedge
A More Substantive Turn
Positivists as Moral Critics
Taking a Pragmatic Stand
Conclusion

6. Breaking Bad: From Validity to Legitimacy
Beyond Validity
Giving Orders
On the Edges
Keeping Up Appearances
The Hall of Shame
Conclusion

7. Keeping Active: Law as Practice
Here's the Thing
A Social Activity
A Common Dilemma
Purely Working
A Less Godly Practice
Conclusion

8. Looking for Solid Ground: The Elusive Search for Interpretive Certitude
Of Penumbras and Paintings
A Fuller Tradition
Mixing and Matching
On the Dark Side?
A Political Reckoning
Conclusion

9. Keeping the Faith: Law, Obedience and Compliance
Introducing the Bad Man
Showing an Interest
An Obliging Approach
Slouching Towards Evil
A Revolting Possibility
Conclusion

10. Legal Theory on the Move: A Never-Ending Inquiry
The Debate that Never Dies
An Economic Turn
The Dworkinian Gambit
A Critical Slant
Up, Down and Sideways
Conclusion