The Germ of Justice: Essays in General Jurisprudence

General jurisprudence is the theory of law in general, identifying features that law has wherever and whenever legal institutions exist. But it is no hermetic inquiry. Law depends on, and has consequences for, politics and morality.

In The Germ of Justice, one of the subject's prominent exponents disentangles these relationships. Professor Leslie Green probes three clusters of problems: the nature of law as a social construction, the relations between law and morality, and the demands that law makes of its officers and its subjects. Along the way, Green asks what jurisprudence can learn from the social sciences, how it is related to the humanities, how it might make progress, and why it is of value.

This wonderful and accessible text engages leading theories of law and key works of Hume, Kelsen, Hart, Dworkin, Finnis, and Raz. The Germ of Justice is a must-have work in contemporary jurisprudence and a powerful contribution to political theory and moral philosophy.