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Law and Nature

David Delaney author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:13th Oct '03

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Law and Nature cover

This interdisciplinary study explores the relationship between conceptions of nature and legal thought and practice.

This interdisciplinary study explores the relationship between conceptions of nature and (largely American) legal thought and practice. It focuses on the politics and pragmatics of nature talk as expressed in both extra-legal disputes and their transformation and translation into forms of legal discourse (tort, property, contract, administrative law, criminal law and constitutional law). Delaney begins by considering the pragmatics of nature in connection with the very idea of law and the practice of American legal theorization. He then traces a set of specific political-legal disputes and arguments. The set consists of a series of contexts and cases organized around a conventional distinction between 'external' and 'internal nature': forces of nature, endangered species, animal experiments, bestiality, reproductive technologies, genetic screening, biological defenses in criminal cases, and involuntary medication of inmates. He demonstrates throughout that nearly any construal of 'nature' entails an interpretation of what it is to be (distinctively) human.

'This is an outstanding book, no doubt the product of a research project of great scope and sustained intellectual inquiry and creativity. With this book, David Delaney makes a significant contribution to the literature on the relationship between law and nature, indeed may even have carved out this area as his own. … eminently readable, he writes beautifully, with a clear purpose (rather than agenda), a light hand and confidence, without cliché, or even predictability.' Journal of Environmental Law
'This is a big book - it has big aims and a big subject matter. … the book's interdisciplinary orientation means that it will appeal strongly to those working in a myriad of disciplines beyond law …'. Journal of Environmental Law

ISBN: 9780521831260

Dimensions: 236mm x 158mm x 32mm

Weight: 840g

452 pages