Forms Liberate: Reclaiming The Jurisprudence Of Lon L Fuller

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Lon L. Fuller's account of legality is widely accepted as the classic 20th-century statement of the principles of the rule of law. What is much less accepted is his argument that a necessary connection between law and morality manifests in these principles. As a result, Fuller's jurisprudence continues to occupy a marginal place in a field dominated by H.L.A. Hart's legal positivism and Ronald Dworkin's interpretive theory of adjudication. Forms Liberate offers a close textual analysis of Fuller's published writings and working papers to dispute this prevailing assessment of his contribution. Fuller's claims about law and morality belong to a wider exploration of the ways in which the form of law introduces meaningful limits to lawgiving power through its connection to human agency. By reading Fuller on his own terms, Forms Liberate demonstrates why his challenge to a purely instrumental conception of law remains salient for 21st-century legal scholarship.

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FORMS LIBERATE Lon L Fuller’s account of what he termed ‘the internal morality of law’ is widely accepted as the classic twentieth century statement of the principles of the rule of law. Much less accepted is his claim that a necessary connection between law and morality manifests in these principles, with the result that his jurisprudence largely continues to occupy a marginal place in the field of legal philosophy. In Forms Liberate: Reclaiming the Jurisprudence of Lon L Fuller, Kristen Rundle offers a close textual analysis of Fuller’s published writings and working papers to explain how his claims about the internal morality of law belong to a wider exploration of the ways in which the distinctive form of law introduces meaningful limits to lawgiving power through its connection to human agency. By reading Fuller on his own terms, Forms Liberate demonstrates why his challenge to a purely instrumental conception of law remains salient for twenty-first century legal scholarship. Forms Liberate Reclaiming the Jurisprudence of Lon L Fuller KRISTEN RUNDLE OXFORD AND PORTLAND, OREGON 2012 Published in the United Kingdom by Hart Publishing Ltd 16C Worcester Place, Oxford, OX1 2JW Telephone: +44 (0)1865 517530 Fax: +44 (0)1865 510710 E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://www.hartpub.co.uk Published in North America (US and Canada) by Hart Publishing c/o International Specialized Book Services 920 NE 58th Avenue, Suite 300 Portland, OR 97213-3786 USA Tel: +1 503 287 3093 or toll-free: (1) 800 944 6190 Fax: +1 503 280 8832 E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://www.isbs.com © Kristen Rundle 2012 Kristen Rundle has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of Hart Publishing, or as expressly permitted by law or under the terms agreed with the appropriate reprographic rights organisation. Enquiries concerning reproduction which may not be covered by the above should be addressed to Hart Publishing Ltd at the address above. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data Available ISBN: 978-1-84946-104-7 Typeset by Hope Services, Abingdon Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall Acknowledgements Completing this book would not have been possible without the support and inspiration provided by many, only a handful of whom I acknowledge here. Given that it began its life as a doctoral thesis, the history of th