Martin Krygier

What is the rule of law for? What does that take? Why does it matter? There is little clarity and less agreement about any of these questions. That is partly because they are hard, but it is also because we generally do not think especially well about them. Yet they are rarely more important than today, and there are better ways to think. In this seminal book, Martin Krygier combines an account of conventional assumptions, a fundamental critique of them, and an alternative way of thinking about the purpose, the value, and the significance of the rule of law, in light of the goal it should serve: tempering power. In this time of widespread intemperate abuse of power throughout the world, these concerns are not merely analytical, academic, or even legal. They are social, political, and moral, and everyone's business. And the stakes are high.

This book is among the first books to consider post-communist Europe from the point of view of the rule of law. This book collects articles written by specialists on the rule of law in particular countries. Interdisciplinary in approach, this book reveals the multi-layered complexity of the development of the rule of law after communism.

Philip Selznick's wide-ranging writings engaged with fundamental questions concerning society, politics, institutions, law, and morals. Never confined by a single discipline or approach, he proved himself a major figure across a range of fields including sociology, organizations and institutions, leadership, political science, sociology of law, political theory, and social philosophy. This volume, the first book-length treatment of Selznick's ideas, discusses Selznick's various intellectual contributions. Reading across Selznick's work, one appreciates the coherence of his fundamental preoccupations—with the social conditions for frustration and the vindication of values and ideas. Exploring Selznick's insights into the nature and quality of institutional, legal, and social life, the book also examines his particular ways of thinking, concerns, values, and sensibility. Martin Krygier brings to light the coherence of Selznick's fundamental preoccupations, allowing readers to fully engage with his unique insights and distinctive moral-intellectual sensibility.

This book is among the first books to consider post-communist Europe from the point of view of the rule of law. This book collects articles written by specialists on the rule of law in particular countries. Interdisciplinary in approach, this book reveals the multi-layered complexity of the development of the rule of law after communism.