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RULE OF LAW
Book by Robert p.wolff
254 pages, Paperback
First published July 10, 1971
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March 7, 2022
In the afterword, Wolff predicts that in the coming years [this was written in 1971] that "institutions of every sort --the Federal Government, local governments, universities, churches, labor unions--will no longer find their claims to authority acknowledged unquestionably." But it is the theme of many of these essays that this in not a bad thing. Wolff continues, that to the contrary "it is the surest sign of a new birth of individual responsibility."
All the usual issues dealing with the legitimacy of laws and authority are dealt with in the essays. The essays in the first part dealt more with contemporary issues such as the Columbia University student protests in 1968. Some, such as Stanley Diamond's essay, "The Rule of Law Versus the Order of Custom" addressed the historical origins of the law. I happen to think we need more such essays to help spread the point Paul Wolff makes in his contributory essay "Violence and the Law":
"No special authority attaches to the laws of representative majoritarian state; it is only the superstition and myth of legitimacy that invests the judge, the policeman, or the official with an exclusive right to the exercise of certain kinds of force."
In the afterword, Wolff predicts that in the coming years [this was written in 1971] that "institutions of every sort --the Federal Government, local governments, universities, churches, labor unions--will no longer find their claims to authority acknowledged unquestionably." But it is the theme of many of these essays that this in not a bad thing. Wolff continues, that to the contrary "it is the surest sign of a new birth of individual responsibility."
All the usual issues dealing with the legitimacy of laws and authority are dealt with in the essays. The essays in the first part dealt more with contemporary issues such as the Columbia University student protests in 1968. Some, such as Stanley Diamond's essay, "The Rule of Law Versus the Order of Custom" addressed the historical origins of the law. I happen to think we need more such essays to help spread the point Paul Wolff makes in his contributory essay "Violence and the Law":
"No special authority attaches to the laws of representative majoritarian state; it is only the superstition and myth of legitimacy that invests the judge, the policeman, or the official with an exclusive right to the exercise of certain kinds of force."
Displaying 1 of 1 review