Legal Philosophy in America

This article offers an overview of the major areas and approaches where American theorists have offered significant contributions to legal philosophy. The first section discusses American legal realism; the second section looks briefly at the legal process school; the third section gives brief overviews of law and economics and the other post-realist critical theories; the fourth section summarizes the approach of Lon Fuller; the fifth section examines the legal theory of Ronald Dworkin; and the fifth section summarizes some significant American contributors to schools of thought that originated in Europe, as well as American contributions to the analysis of legal concepts and doctrinal areas.