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Post-positivism presents a materialist, holist, monist, cognitivist theory of law and justice. It argues that positivism and natural law are complementary and that the normative syllogism can be logically valid if its implicit presumptions are rendered explicit and its normative statements are recast as logical conditionals. Laws are logical conditionals. Logic has two branches, theoretical rationality and practical reasoning. Binary logic is inadequate to accurately describe law as seen in several logical paradoxes that are avoided by using multivariate logic.

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1. Method: Ontology, Epistemology, Axiology

2. Legal Theory in Antiquity: Aristotle

3. Pre Modern Theory: Medieval Scholasticism and the Universals (1400-1600)

4. Into Modernity: Natural Law and Normative Inference

Introduction: The Contemporary View - The False Dichotomy of Either Positivism or Natural Law but not Both - Normative Inferencing

5. Modernity: Social Contract and Natural Law

Natural Rights - Social Contract Theory - Contemporary Social Contract Theorists - Libertarians - Criticisms of the Social Contract - Conclusion: Explaining the Success of the Theory of Social Contract Theory

6. Late Modernity: Legal Realism

Introduction - The Judicial "Revolution" - Post War: Co-opting Radicalism to Serve Global Hegemony - Conclusion

7. Beyond legal Realism (1950-1980)

Introduction: The Failure of the Left - Epistemological Basis of Realist Legal method - Axiological Basis of Realist Legal Method. Hume and Kelsen - Legal Method - Conclusion: Beyond Legal Realism

8. Law and Economics (1980-?)

Introduction - The Origin of Contemporary L&E in Classical Economists - Law and Economics: Richard Posner - The Chicago School (Supply side Theory): Milton Friedman - The Vienna School - The School of Public Choice: James Buchanan - Conclusions

9. Kelsen

Normative Inference - Critique - Conclusion

10. After Modernity? Critical Legal Studies

The Origins of Critical Legal Studies: Legal Realism - Marxist Legal Theory - Critical Legal Studies - Post Modernism

11. Contemporary Legal Theory: Scientificity

Introduction - Scientificity of Law: How the Study of Law is Scientific - Language, Logic, and Law - A Critical Response to Duncan Kennedy´s Theory of Argumentation - Pedagogy - Conclusion

12. Legal Indeterminacy and Autonomy of Law

Introduction - Truth - Logic - Conclusion: Law and Morality

13. Rights Discourse

14. The Right to Food
Global Conclusion

Bibliography, Table of Cases, Index

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Eric Engle (JD, St. Louis, DEA, Paris, LL.M. Dr. Jur. Bremen) currently teaches law at Humboldt University of Berlin. He has taught law in France, Germany, Estonia, and Russia. He speaks English, French, and German fluently, and also speaks Spanish, Russian, and Estonian. He has published several dozen law review articles.

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