On the Prospects of a Naturalized Jurisprudence: Review of Brian Leiter, Naturalizing Jurisprudence

Abstract

Brian Leiter is one of the leading proponents of the use and application of so-called "naturalistic developments" in contemporary philosophy to central questions in analytic jurisprudence. He is also arguably *the* leading philosophical interpreter of legal realism. In Naturalizing Jurisprudence, he collects many of his most important essays on these topics, organized by theme, and presents previously unpublished responses to critics.

In this Review, I critically examine the three parts of Leiter's book, which address: (1) the philosophical legacy of American legal realism, with specific reference to the nature of justification in adjudication; (2) the appropriate philosophical methodology to determine the nature of law (including what conclusions to draw from this methodology); and (3) the bearing that issues in meta-ethics might have on legal objectivity. Special emphasis is given throughout to the larger prospects for a naturalized jurisprudence, and to how alternative versions of naturalized views might look.

Keywords: Leiter, Naturalized Jurisprudence, Quine, Adjudication, Dworkin, Hart, Jurisprudence, Philosophy, Legal Realism, Meta-Ethics, Objectivity, Legal Positivism, Raz, Coleman, Natural Law, epistemology, methodology, conceptual analysis, a priori, naturalistic turn, naturalism, naturalistic, moral realism