Richard Posner discusses the structure and behaviour of the legal profession; constitutional theory; interdisciplinary approaches to law; the nature of legal reasoning; and legal pragmatism. Although written by a sitting judge, the book does not avoid controversy, and contains frank appraisals of feminist and critical race theories, the behaviour of the German and British judiciaries in wartime, and the excesses of social constructionist theories of sexual behaviour. Throughout, the book is unified by Posner's stance, which is pragmatic in philosophy, economic in methodology, and liberal (in the sense of John Stuart Mill's liberalism) in politics. Eschewing jargon and technicalities, it should make a contribution to the debate about the role of law in our society.

作者

理查德·A. 波斯納（Richard A. Posner, 1939- ），先後以第一名畢業於耶魯大學文學係（1959）和哈佛法學院（1962）。曾任美國聯邦最高法院大法官助手、政府律師。聯邦司法部副部長助理，總統交通政策特彆工作組首席法律顧問等職。後任斯坦福大學和芝加 哥大學法學院教授和L.B. 弗雷曼講座法學教授，聯邦上訴法院法官，並擔任芝加哥大學法學院法律經濟學高級講座主持人。1981年齣任聯邦第七巡迴區上訴訟院至今（1993-2000年任首席法官），同時擔任芝加哥大學法學院高級講師。

“他是著述最豐的聯邦法官，前無古人。任職上訴法院、仍屬最高産的法學傢之列，同樣前無古人。如果以引證率測度影響力，那麼當仁不讓，波斯納是世界的最有影響的法學傢”。