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4 J. Soc'y Pub. Tchrs. L. n.s. 143 (1957-1958)
Dias and Hughes on Jurisprudence

handle is hein.journals/sptlns4 and id is 151 raw text is: DIAS AND HUGHES ON JURISPRUDENCE DIAS AND HUGHES ON JURISPRUDENCE' By H. L. A. HART A STIN, Amos, Clark, Markby, Holland, Salmond, Keeton, Paton, Stone, and now Dias and Hughes. After the early cir- cumnavigations of the explorers, are these guided tours round the world of jurisprudence in 5oo-odd pages still really necessary ? Are they even salutary ? Would it not be better to make shorter journeys and penetrate farther and deeper into a single territory ? Only the British, it seems, have this passion for these global guide-books; Americans, interested in jurisprudence, find them puzzling and depres- sing, and suspect, probably rightly, that they only flourish here because they are geared to a standard type of examination which compels the student to prepare to regurgitate a huge variety of someone's views on a huge variety of topics. The justification for yet another book of this kind is presumably that some discoveries outside the law, in philosophy, history or the social sciences, or some shift in political or economic conditions, have provided a new key to old problems or thrown up new and strange phenomena calling for explanation. If this is the defence for these productions, they must be condemned if their vast scope brings with it superficiality, or inaccuracy, if they communicate not a memorable point of view but merely points to be memorized ; or if, instead of kindling an intellectual interest which will lead the student to read some great writers, they provide mere potted versions of their works with which the student will rest content. Judged by these standards the present work is only partially success- ful. There are indeed very good things in it which I hope the criticisms which follow will not obscure. The authors write with the robust conviction that very often questions in jurisprudence are baffling because they are posed in a misleading form or because they attribute some absolute character to distinctions which are arbitrary or relative. They insist rightly that answers to most questions are to be found by dissecting examples of the legal phenomena which have given rise to them : that even the most general jurisprudence must keep in touch with the detail of an actual legal system and find its answers mainly by knowing more about the law. Much industry has gone into stocking the footnotes with references to cases and articles. There are passages of vigorous and cogent argument, notably in the discussion of Parlia- mentary supremacy and the chapter on Possession. The book is divided into three parts. Part I includes custom, precedent, legislation, the supremacy of Parliament ; Part II, acts and things, rights and duties, ownership and possession. Part III, besides accounts of natural law, Austin, Kelsen, the Historical School, the American and Scandinavian Realists, includes a well written, though entirely unoriginal chapter on Soviet jurisprudence and its roots in I Jurisprudence. By R. W. M. DIAS and G. B. J. HUGHES. London: Butter- worth & Co., Ltd. 1957. 1 + 501 + 27 pp. (42s.).

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