Review of A Study of Epistemology in Legal Theory by Michael D Roumeliotis

Abstract

A Study of Epistemology in Legal Theory by Michael D. Roumeliotis has a somewhat wider title than its contents satisfy. It is rather a collection of essays on linguistic jurisprudence, including an appendix which offers an overview of the ideas of recent scholars who have written on the tradition of linguistic philosophy, and a general defence of the methodological presumptions of H.L.AHart. In the introduction the author advises that the book is about the "jurisprudence of ordinary language and its method"; "the claims linguistic jurisprudence made to knowledge and their meaning;" "an excavation in pursuit of what in them is true;" "linguistic jurisprudence assumed as firm philosophical ground" or the "frock, once so trendy, linguistic jurisprudence forgot herself in'; "our incoherent times, the place of the intellectual, communication and the lack of it; humans and the groups they make; the concept of rule, and finally, language and logic."1 In short, a lot of promises are made.