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Central Issues in Jurisprudence . N.E. Simmonds. London: Sweet and Maxwell, 1986.

This book is intended, not as an introduction to philosophy of law nor as a contribution to the development of ideas in that field, but as a means of broadening and deepening the understanding that law students have of the law itself. It aims to do this by showing how their, and our, conceptions of law are nested within and influenced by larger questions of a theoretical, evaluative and/or moral nature. These larger questions have been systematically explored by philosophers in their theories of justice, rights, liberty, utility and law. By acquainting law students with the major contemporary philosophical ideas about these questions, Simmonds encourages them to rethink their assumption that the law is a relatively cut and dried matter, about which there is little room for debate or reflection. Simmonds executes this task extremely well, following a strategy of describing the principal theories in philosophy of law, with relatively little accompanying critical commentary. His book provides an accurate and penetrating review of the major currents in social and legal theorizing. He does this sometimes by outlining a number of competing or complementary views about a topic (e.g. theories of social justice), but more commonly by presenting concise and accurate accounts of the main ideas of an author. There are chapters specifically devoted to the ideas of Rawls, Nozick, Finnis, Dworkin, Hart and Fuller, as well as to the dominant intellectual traditions in social theorising relevant to law such as utilitarianism and contractarianism. Simmonds's discussion of Dworkin focuses on his early essays in Taking Rights Seriously. While it is true that Dworkin's most recent book, Law's Empire, shows exciting new directions of development as well as departures from his early ideas, Simmonds's