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Book Review - Deconstructing Hart: A Review of Lacey's A Life of H.L.A. Hart (2004) - [Nicola Lacey, A Life of H.L.A. Hart. The Nightmare and the Noble Dream, Oxford University Press 2004, ISBN 0-19-927497-5, pp. 328, $35.00]

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Abstract

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Type
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Copyright
Copyright © 2005 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

1 Nicola Lacey, A Life of H.L.A. Hart. The Nightmare and the Noble Dream (2004).Google Scholar

2 See, e.g., id. at 129 (Jenifer Hart); 353 (Ronald Dworkin).Google Scholar

3 Id. at 1.Google Scholar

4 Id. at 3 (emphasis added).Google Scholar

5 Id. at 1.Google Scholar

6 See id. at 122.Google Scholar

7 See id. at xxii. “Since my ambition was to write a book which could be read as a complete narrative, and following Herbert Hart's own example in The Concept of Law, […].”Google Scholar

8 There are now and then a few repetitions, but they are mostly an implication of the literary genre that implies recursive narrative processes.Google Scholar

9 Neil MacCormick, HLA Hart (1981).Google Scholar

10 Lacey, supra note 1, at xxii.Google Scholar

11 Blackburn, Simon and Waldron, Jeremy, “Letter” In Reply to Thomas Nagel's Review of Nicola Lacey's Book, 27 London Review of Books No. 4 (2005), available at http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n04/letters.html.Google Scholar

12 See the exchange between Thomas Nagel, Jeremy Waldron and Simon Blackburn. Letters, 27 London Review of Books No. 4 (2005), available at http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n04/letters.html. See also Thomas Nagel, “The Central Questions” – Review of Nicola Lacey's A Life of H.L.A. Hart, 27 London Review of Books No. 3 (2005), available at http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n03/nage01_.html.Google Scholar

13 See the same exchange between Nagel, Waldron and Blackburn, supra note 12. See also Nagel, supra note 12.Google Scholar

14 See the Biographer's Note on Approach and Sources at the beginning of the book.Google Scholar

15 Lacey, supra note 1, at xviii.Google Scholar

16 See id. at 357.Google Scholar

17 On these two central questions, see id. at 3. “This contrast between his public and private worlds raises fascinating questions not only about Hart's background and personality but also about the nature of his intellectual creativity and about the quality of the social world, with is various intersecting hierarchies, in which he lived.” (emphasis added).Google Scholar

18 Id. at xix. See, e.g., Nicola Lacey, Unspeakable Subjects (1998); Nicola Lacey, Feminist Perspectives on Ethical Positivism, in Judicial Power, Democracy and Legal Positivism (T. Campbell and J. Goldsworthy eds. 2000); Nicola Lacey, Philosophical Foundations of the Common Law: Social not Metaphysical, in Oxford Essays in Jurisprudence (J. Horder ed. 2000); Nicola Lacey and E. Jackson, Introducing Feminist Legal Theory, in Jurisprudence and Legal Theory: Commentary and Materials (J. Penner, D. Schiff and R. Nobles eds. 2002); Nicola Lacey, Feminist Legal Theories and the Rights of Women, in Gender and Human Rights (Karen Knopp ed. 2004).Google Scholar

19 Lacey, supra note 1, at xvii.Google Scholar

20 Id. at xix.Google Scholar

21 Id. at xviii-xix.Google Scholar

22 Id. at xix.Google Scholar

23 Id. at xx.Google Scholar

24 See id. at 3 (“Life and Scholarship”).Google Scholar

25 See, e.g., Lacey, Unspeakable Subjects, supra note 18.Google Scholar

26 Lacey, supra note 1, at xvii.Google Scholar

27 Id. at xvii.Google Scholar

28 Id. at xvii. One exception is on page 352 and even then it is a scientific contribution rather than a personal one.Google Scholar

29 Id. at xviii.Google Scholar

30 Id. at xvii.Google Scholar

31 Id. at xviii.Google Scholar

32 See Nagel, supra note 12.Google Scholar

33 Lacey, supra note 1, at xviii.Google Scholar

34 Id. at xx.Google Scholar

35 See Nagel, supra note 12.Google Scholar

36 Lacey, supra note 1, at xix.Google Scholar

37 Id. at ix. See J. Ryan, “Letter” In Reply to Nagel's Review of Nicola Lacey's Book, 27 London Review of Books No. 4 (2005), available at http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n04/letters.html.Google Scholar

38 Lacey, supra note 1, at xix.Google Scholar

39 Id. at xix.Google Scholar

40 Id. at xix-xx.Google Scholar

41 Id. at xix. Contra: id. at xviii (“Voyage of Discovery”).Google Scholar

42 Id. at xix.Google Scholar

43 Id. at xxi.Google Scholar

44 Id. at 3.Google Scholar

45 Id. at 66 (Connecting the mutual attraction of Herbert and Jenifer Hart to their different social origins and their respective longing to belong to the opposite side).Google Scholar

46 Interestingly, Lacey uses a “back and forth” narration technique in emphasizing elements in her story that allow her to attract attention on features which will be confirmed later on.Google Scholar

47 See Lacey, supra note 1, at xviii. See also id. at 229-232. On this debate, see Hart, H.L.A., American Jurisprudence through English Eyes: The Nightmare and the Noble Dream, 11 Georgia Law Review 969 (1977).Google Scholar

48 See, e.g., Lacey, supra note 1, at 61. “There is no evidence that Herbert had any significant sexual relationships during the first half of the decade. This lack of sexual relationships might be explained in terms of the amount of time he was devoting to work, and the emotional reserve which characterized most of his friendships was doubtless to some degree simply a product of the prevailing culture in the 1930s.” (emphasis added).Google Scholar

49 Id. at 61.Google Scholar

50 Id. at Chapter 4.Google Scholar

51 Id. at 73-74.Google Scholar

52 Id. at 203-208.Google Scholar

53 See id. at 33-35.Google Scholar

54 Id. at 12.Google Scholar

55 See id. at 269.Google Scholar

56 See id. at 271.Google Scholar

57 Id. at 342.Google Scholar

58 See id. at 119.Google Scholar

59 Id. at 356.Google Scholar

60 See id. at 51-57.Google Scholar

61 See, e.g., id. at 112 ff.Google Scholar

62 Id. at 52.Google Scholar

63 Id. at 151.Google Scholar

64 Id. at 53.Google Scholar

65 Id. at 233.Google Scholar

66 Id. at 129.Google Scholar

67 Id. at 131.Google Scholar

68 Id. at 363.Google Scholar

69 Id. at 353.Google Scholar

70 Id. at 208.Google Scholar

71 Id. at 357.Google Scholar