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Title: Taking Rights Seriously
ISBN: 0674867114
Author:
Ronald Dworkin
Publicate Date: 2007-09-05
Publish: 2007-09-05
List Price: $24.00
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $14.99
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Absolute Classic
Things are quite simple. If there is A contemporary debate in jurisprudence, it is the so-called Hart/Dworkin debate. It all starts with this wonderful book that cuts deeply and challenges the theory of legal positivism on many levels. As for the theory of rights, Dworkin is a proponent of one of the most coherent, interesting and complex articulations of liberalism. In short: to the extent that fundamental rights are in play, the "political majority" (if such a thing exists) does not have the moral right to tell members of the minority what to do with their own lives. Is not this a simple but powerful moral truth?
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2: Tyranny of a minority
Dworkin's thesis is that a tyranny of a minority is better than a tyranny of the majority. His argument is based on rigorous logic. But Justice Holmes observed that, "The life of the law has not been logic, it has been experience." Dworkin's theory is similar to those of Plato and Marx. But experience with the latters' theories has been negative. For an analysis of that experience, read Kark Popper's The Open Society and Its Enemies.
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3: His Logic is Flawless
... and this is a welcome breeze in the current political fog of an America drowning in six-shooters and visceral-response-teams. The Dworkin-challenge before us is the discovery of rights as emanating from the individual, and their use in daily life. This is where Dworkin may break down. Unlike Dershowitz's "Shouting Fire", for example, Dworkin does not write as if there is a human behind the logic who is actually extolling our necessary freedoms. Perhaps it is just me, but I'd like to hold on to and celebrate my rights and yours; I'd also like to affect change-- as would Dworkin, on a global scale. Though he sees humanity's natural path to decency, his writing "feels" far too cold to be effective.
Dworkin is provocative, complex and though-full. This work shifts between levels of abstraction and works toward grand theories of natural-law that will flip less talented contemporaries on their collective heads. Because our job as citizens includes the requirement that we think (far beyond our childhood systems of ordering the world), "Taking Rights Seriously" should indeed be taken to heart and mind. My instinct is to suggest that one supplement Dworkin with John S. Mill and Dershowitz. With a nod to Dworkin, I "think" the latter suggestion is well-reasoned.
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4: misleading title
I have only read the first two chapters so far but mostly it is an attempt to discredit Justice John Marshall and his judicial review or judicial activism to cultivate individual rights or protect the common man from an abusive govt and the rich who have bought local and national politicians, with some nonsense about the priority of community or majority rules and principles. How dare the common man protest abuse by the majority!!! So much for freedom and the Bill of Rights. There is some suggestion that may redeem from the prospective that there maybe a better way to challenge injustice of the majority than use of judicial activism, but I haven't got that far yet.
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5: A Clear Window on Rights
It is a brave author that attempts a new perspective on a topic that has been fodder for politicians and philosophers for thousands of years. Dworkin clears out the old cobwebs and provides insights and new perspectives for the 21st century. It is a must read for anyone serious about our dwindling rights in today's modern society. Well written, not an academic sleeping pill.
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