Law and Truth [Hardcover]

Taking up a single question-- What does it mean to say a proposition of law is true? --this book advances a major new account of truth in law. Drawing upon the later philosophy of Wittgenstein, as well as more recent postmodern theory of the relationship between language, meaning, and the world, Patterson examines leading contemporary jurisprudential approaches to this question and finds them flawed in similar and previously unnoticed ways. He offers a powerful alternative account of legal justification, one in which linguisticpractice--the use of forms of legal argument--holds the key to legal meaning.

Law & Truthis one of the most significant books on jurisprudence to be published in recent years. --Notre Dame Law Review

Patterson's project succeeds. --Columbia Law Review

An invaluable addition to the literature on philosophical realism, language philosophy, and legal philosophy. --Choice

An excellent compendium of contemporary views on the epistemological soundness of contemporary theory of jurisprudence....[Includes] two superlative [chapters] on the jurisprudential notions of Ronald Dworkin and Stanley Fish. This thorough ventilation of the claims and pretentions of these two eminent jurists brings readers... to the forefront of controversy in the philosophy of law and related philosophical disciplines.... The concluding chapters...offer Patterson's own claim that truth is best seen as a linguistic practice among competently trained communicators.... An invaluable addition to the literature on philosophical realism, language philosophy and legal philosophy. --Choice

Patterson's book is an important piece of work on a topic fundamental to legal theory and currently of great interest in scholarly circles. Professor Patterson addresses large and difficult issues of metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of language, which many believe to lie at the founlS*