Bentham's Theory of Law and Public Opinion

Description

This collection represents the latest research from leading scholars whose work has helped to frame our understanding of Bentham since the publication of H. L. A. Hart's Essays on Bentham. The authors explore fundamental areas of Bentham's thought, including the relationship between the rule of law and public opinion; law and popular prejudices or manipulated tastes; Bentham's methodology versus Hart's; sovereignty and codification; and the language of natural rights. Drawing on original manuscripts and volumes in The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham, the chapters combine philosophical and historical approaches and offer new and more faithful interpretations of Bentham's legal philosophy and its development. As a coherent whole, the book challenges the dominant understandings of Bentham among legal philosophers and rescues him from some famous mischaracterizations.

Xiaobo Zhai is Professor of Law at Zhengzhou University in China and Newton International Fellow at University College London. Michael Quinn is Senior Research Associate of the Bentham Project at University College London. His research focuses on Bentham's applications of the principle of utility to public policy.