John L. Bowman / John LBowman
This is a book about the nature of law and its proposition is law should embody justice-but it does not. It does not because there exists a jurisprudential tug of war today between natural and normative law based on morality and non-natural and descriptive law that claims law is simply a social fact. American jurisprudence, perhaps for the first time in human history was founded on natural law. The Constitution embodied morality derived from the social contract which was derived in part from John Locke who believed the end of law is not to abolish or restrain but to preserve and enlarge freedom. But America is embracing non-natural law and the consequences have been unequal treatment under the law, erosion of the rule of law and injustice in the law. America’s judiciary is in turmoil and this book explains why. It does so by exploring contemporary philosophies of law, important moral theories including the social contract, the nature of justice as well as rights, legal reasoning, punishment, responsibility, procedure and evidence.