Introduction
… The hypothesis here is that, provided one does not treat them as statements of lex lata (the law as it is) no matter what their authors might claim, but as a more or less stable mixture of elements of lex lata and lex ferenda (the law as it should be), treatises can provide insight into conceptions of law in general and of a particular area of law, into ideas about the project of legal scholarship, legal education (and learning), legal commentary, about the very notion of the ideal in law, and the relationship between the real and the ideal, into the role of law in broader projects, including projects of nation-building, of (scientific) systematisation, of rationalisation, and of civilisation, modernisation, and therefore also codification, and, ultimately, into the relationship between the individual, the community (however defined), and the law (and perhaps even the state, depending on one’s view of the law’s, and the lawyer’s, role within the state apparatus) …
Angela Fernandez and Markus D Dubber, Introduction: Putting the Legal Treatise in its Place in Angela Fernandez and Markus D Dubber eds, Law Books in Action: Essays on the Anglo-American Legal Treatise (Oxford; Portland, Oregon: Hart Publishing, 2012) 1.
First posted 2018-07-02 05:39:04
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