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Have concepts, will travel: analytical jurisprudence in a global context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2005

William Twining
William Twining
Affiliation:
Quain Professor of Jurisprudence Emeritus, University College London
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Abstract

Our increasingly cosmopolitan discipline needs to be underpinned by a revival of the idea of general jurisprudence, in which generalisations – conceptual, normative, empirical, legal – about legal phenomena are treated as problematic. This paper argues that, as part of this, analytical jurisprudence should broaden its focus not only geographically, but also in respect of the range of concepts, conceptual frameworks, and discourses that it considers. How far is any of our current stock of concepts adequate for talking meaningfully across legal traditions and cultures? Which concepts ‘travel’ relatively well or badly and why? Such questions are illustrated with reference to discourses about legal rights, the treatment of prisoners, and corruption.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Law in Context , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , March 2005 , pp. 5 - 40
Copyright
2005 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This paper is a revised version of the second in a series of lectures on ‘General Jurisprudence’, delivered in Tilburg during the academic year 2000–01. It is a sequel to two books: (i) Globalisation and Legal Theory (Butterworths, 2000 and Northwestern UP, 2002) (hereafter Twining, 2000) (which critically explores mainstream Anglo-American jurisprudence and comparative law in relation to ‘globalisation’); and (ii) The Great Juristic Bazaar (hereafter GJB) (Ashgate, 2002), especially Ch. 4, and 9–11. This is a collection of essays dealing with particular jurists in the same tradition. This essay builds on four further essays: (iii) ‘Reviving General Jurisprudence’ in M. Likosky (ed.) Transnational Legal Processes (Butterworth, 2002) Ch. 1 (reprinted in GJB); (iv) ‘The Province of Jurisprudence Re-examined’ (Stone Memorial Lecture, Sydney, 2000, published in C. Dauvergne (ed.) Jurisprudence for an Interconnected Globe (Ashgate, 2003) Ch. 2.; (v) ‘A Post-Westphalian Conception of Law’ (review article of Brian Tamanaha, A General Jurisprudence of Law and Society (OUP, 2001) 37 Law and Society Review 199–257 (2003)); and (vi) ‘A cosmopolitan discipline? Some implications of ‘globalisation’ for legal education’, 8 Int. Jo. Legal Profession 23–36 (2001).