The Duty to Obey the Law: Selected Philosophical Readings

The question of why the law should be obeyed introduces a philosophical puzzle going back to antiquity. The controversy today is as spirited as ever, and involves scholars from the diverse fields of philosophy, law, government, political science, and sociology. This anthology presents 14 contributions representing recent work on the subject, presented in the order in which they were written, beginning with Richard Wasserstrom's 1963 piece, "The Obligation to Obey the Law" written during the period of the Freedom Rides in the American South and ending with Mark Murphy's 1997 effort to use consent theory to ground the duty to obey the law. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

William A. Edmundson is professor at Georgia State University College of Law. He is the author of Three Anarchical Fallacies: An Essay on Political Authority (1998, Cambridge University Press).