Legal Pragmatism Community, Rights, and Democracy [Paperback]

In Legal Pragmatism, Michael Sullivan looks closely at the place of the individual and community in democratic society. After mapping out a brief history of American legal thinking regarding rights, from communitarianism to liberalism, Sullivan gives a rich and nuanced account of how pragmatism worked to resolve conflicts of self-interest and community well-being. Sullivans view of pragmatism provides a comprehensive framework for understanding democracy, as well as issues such as health care, education, gay marriage, and illegal immigration that will determine its character in the future. Legal Pragmatism is a bold, carefully argued book that presents a unique understanding of contemporary society, law, and politics.

[This book] represents an genuine breakthrough . . . . [It] will have a large influence on the course of jurisprudential reflection in the decades ahead.

Michael Sullivan is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Emory University.

Contents
Acknowledgments

Introduction
1. What's Right with Rights and Wrong with Communitarianism?
2. Taking Rights and Pragmatism Seriously
3. Posner's Unpragmatic Pragmatism
4. Toward a Reconstructive Pragmatism
5. Reconstructing Judicial Review
6. Pragmatism, Genealogy, and Democracy

Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

Against the charge . . . that pragmatism fails to take rights seriously, Sullivan responds that pragmatism provides us with the best account of why we should take rights seriously.