ABSTRACT
Dworkin’s jurisprudential writings seek to explore the essence of rights and to place them within a wider setting of social and political ideology. His work ranges beyond that generally associated with current American legal theory, in that he rejects the view of jurisprudence as a ‘pure academic discipline’ which should have little to say of immediate significance for political realities. For Dworkin, law and political ideology have close links: both co-exist as aspects of social aspirations and activities, and neither can be understood fully without reference to the other. Law in practice is for him ‘an unfolding narrative’ which can be interpreted only by comprehending its social setting. An analysis of rights, in particular, demands examination of their place within the wide culture, and very purpose, of social and political awareness.
