Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part one -- Evaluation and the description of law -- Images and objections -- Part two -- A basic form of good: knowledge -- The other basic values -- The basic requirements of practical resonableness -- Community, communities, and common good -- Justice -- Rights -- Authority -- Law -- Obligation -- Unjust laws -- Part three -- Nature, reason, God.

This book firmly integrates the philosophy of law with ethics, social theory and political philosophy. The author develops a sustained and substantive argument; it is not a review of other people's arguments but makes frequent illustrative and critical reference to classical, medieval, modern, and contemporary writers in ethics, social and political theory, and jurisprudence.