Vol. 9 No. 10 (October 1999) pp. 424-427.

PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ON LAW & POLITICS: READINGS FROM PLATO TO DERRIDA by Patrick Hayden (Editor). New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1999. 364pp. Paper $29.95.

Reviewed by Artemus Ward, Department of Political Science, California State University, Chico.

As the 21st century rapidly approaches, we continue to grapple with issues relating to the role of law and politics in society. Age-old questions about law's influence on individuals and their relationship to the wider political community continue to be debated not only in college classrooms but also in society as a whole. As a result, teaching courses in legal philosophy and political thought can be very challenging. With over two thousand years of western legal and political philosophy to choose from, instructors often have a difficult time knowing where to begin and what to include.

Fortunately, Patrick Hayden has culled together a group of classic readings by important philosophers that encompass a wide- range of perspectives on the role of law and politics in society. Hayden broadly divides the anthology into three chronological sections. Each selection ranges from twenty to forty pages in length and includes each author's original footnotes.

In part one, selections from Plato's REPUBLIC (1888), Aristotle's POLITICS (1885), and St. Thomas Aquinas' SUMMA THEOLOGICA (1915) are offered as examples of classical reflections on the nature of law, politics, and the ideal state. The inclusion of Plato and Aristotle will allow students to see a number of important similarities and differences in conceptualizing the ideal state. For example, while Plato searched for perfect justice, the selection from Aristotle demonstrates that the laws of men can never attain true justice. Still, Aristotle's faith in the rule of law provides students with a solid foundation for the subsequent readings. It is not surprising then that St. Thomas Aquinas is Hayden's next choice. Aristotle's views gained acceptance in the 13th century largely due to St. Thomas' influence. He fused the political ideals of ancient Greece with church doctrine to promote the necessity of government. Getting students excited and interested in these works, while always a challenge, is not out of the realm of the impossible. After all, each author does argue that monarchy is the desired form of government.

Part two is the largest section of the book and focuses on modern conceptions of law, the common good, and political society. The eight selections are comprised of Benedict De Spinoza's POLITICAL TREATISE (1951), Thomas Hobbes' LEVIATHAN (1839), John Locke's SECOND TREATISE ON CIVIL GOVERNMENT (1764), Baron de

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Montesquieu's SPIRIT OF THE LAWS (1878), Jean Jacques Rousseau's SOCIAL CONTRACT (1902), Immanuel Kant's PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL RIGHT (1891), G.W.F. Hegel's PHILOSOPHY OF RIGHT (1896), and Jeremy Bentham's PRINCIPLES OF MORALS AND LEGISLATION (1789). Although I won't go into the arguments of each author here, it is in these readings that students begin to question their own presuppositions about the nature of law and government. Students should come away with questions about human nature from reading Hobbes and Rousseau and ask whether a particular view of human nature necessarily dictates a specific view of the law and a particular form of government.

The final part of the anthology will arguably prove the most challenging for students. It contains more contemporary views on law and politics and is where the book's greatest contribution lies. Included is an excerpt from Hannah Arendt's ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM (1915), a law review article by John Rawls (1989) on "The Domain of the Political and Overlapping Consensus," an article by Jurgen Habermas (1995) "On the Internal Relation Between the Rule of Law and Democracy," and an essay by Jacques Derrida (1990) entitled the "Force of Law: The 'Mystical Foundation of Authority.'" Hayden's choice of these essays deserves much applause. Rather than using the most well known of these author's writings, he has included their more recent pieces that are specific to the book's topic. Although many of us are familiar with Rawls' THEORY OF JUSTICE (1971), for example, the inclusion of this more recent and more targeted piece is refreshing. Here, students will move beyond their conceptions of the rule of law and good government and return to fundamental questions. In this sense, students will come full circle from the fundamental questioning of Plato to Derrida's critique of authority.

Of course it is impossible to include every important author and still keep an edited volume relatively short and accessible. Although an argument could be made for the inclusion of works by Machiavelli, Tocqueville, Mill, Marx, Lenin, Nietzsche, Gandhi, and others, one has to draw the line somewhere.

If there is one shortcoming to this collection, from a teaching perspective, it is Hayden's choice of a minimalist approach. Unlike other anthologies, the selections in this book stand alone, meaning that Hayden has not provided any introductory remarks, reading questions, or analysis about the authors or works included. He has also made no attempt to link the readings in any explicit way. One benefit of this minimal approach is that it permits instructors and students to make their own interpretations and connections between the selections. Instructors can provide as much or as little direction as the like depending on how well the students are grasping the material. By the same token, an obvious drawback is that outside the classroom, non-specialists and lay readers may have a more difficult time with the more challenging selections due to the lack of direction. My own preference would be the inclusion of short introductory essays placing the authors in their historical context and providing some analytic component. Unlike similar

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compilations, Hayden does provide a brief index that should make it easier for students to compare the authors' views on such concepts as authority, freedom, justice, liberty, morality and security. This book would be best used as an undergraduate text for a course in legal philosophy or western political thought. One might also want to use it as a supplement in a class on law and politics or the judicial process. The books accessible yet probing selections are sure to provoke students for in-class discussions. And despite its minimalist approach, this anthology should prove interesting and challenging to the non-specialist.

REFERENCES

Aquinas, St. Thomas. 1915. SUMMA THEOLOGICA. Trans. English Dominican Fathers. New York: Benziger Brothers.

Arendt, Hannah. 1951. THE ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM. New York: Harcourt Brace.

Aristotle. 1885. POLITICS," in THE POLITICS OF ARISTOTLE. Trans. Benjamin Jowett. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.

Bentham, Jeremy. 1789. THE PRINCIPLES OF MORALS AND LEGISLATION. London: T. Payne and Son.

Derrida, Jacques. 1990. "Force of Law: The 'Mystical Foundation of Authority,'" CARDOZO LAW REVIEW 11: 919.

Habermas, Jurgen. 1995. "On the Internal Relation Between the Rule of Law and Democracy." EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY 3: 1.

Hegel, G.W.F. 1896. PHILOSOPHY OF RIGHT. Trans. S. W. Dyde. London: George Bell and Sons.

Hobbes, Thomas. 1839. "Leviathan." In THE ENGLISH WORKS OF THOMAS HOBBES. Ed. Sir William Molesworth. London: John Bohn.

Kant, Immanuel. 1891. PRINCIPLES OF POLITICS. Trans.W. Hastie. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark.

Locke, John. 1764. TWO TREATISES OF GOVERNMENT, Book II. London: A. Miller.

Montesquieu, Baron de. 1878. THE SPIRIT OF THE LAWS. Trans. Thomas Nugent. London: George Bell and Sons.

Plato. 1888. THE REPUBLIC OF PLATO. 3rd ed. Trans. Benjamin Jowett. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.

Rawls, John. 1971. A THEORY OF JUSTICE. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Rawls, John. 1989. "The Domain of the Political and Overlapping Consensus," NEW YORK UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 64: 233.

Rousseau, Jean Jacques. 1902. THE SOCIAL CONTRACT. , 3rd ed. Trans. Henry J. Tozer. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co.

Spinoza, Benedict de. 1951. "A Political Treatise." In THE WORKS OF

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SPINOZA, Vol. 1. Trans. R. H. M. Elwes. New York: Dover Publications.