ABSTRACT
The past forty years have seen a remarkable interpenetration of law and philosophy. Philosophical treatises like J. Rawls's A Theory of Justice (1971) have been studied with as much care by lawyers as philosophers while philosophically sophisticated works of legal theory like H. L A. Hart and Tony Honore's Causation in the Law (1959) have had an influence in areas of philosophy with no obvious connection to law. So deeply connected have the two subjects become that it is probably not possible any longer to say where the philosophy of law leaves off and the rest of philosophy or the rest of law begins. This essay discusses recent work in the areas usually treated as central in books and courses in the philosophy of law - fundamental jurisprudence, the theory of crime and punishment, and issues in responsibility and tort.
