The volume is an easy-to-read, informative introduction to the history of the analytical philosophy of law. The text examines three fundamental stages of the historical evolution of this approach, emphasising the connection between the legal sphere (analytical philosophy of law) and the philosophical sphere (general analytical philosophy). The book also highlights certain important features of the method (language analysis) of analytical philosophy applied in an institutionalised field of investigation such as the law and stresses its important legal achievements: the strict logic of analysis; the clarity of expression; the sharp distinction between political-judgmental options and information-oriented discourses; the ethical and political defence of the basic values of the rule of law. The text contains a final chapter that reviews more recent analytical developments towards a "post-analytical" perspective.

Contents: 1. Selected Guiding Definitions of a Preliminary Nature - 2. Alf Ross, Legal Realism, and Neopositivism - 3. The Italian Analytical School and Broad Positivism - 4. Hart and the Analysis of Ordinary Language - 5. Post-Analytical Philosophy and Contemporary Philosophy of Law

Vittorio Villa teaches Philosophy of Law at the University of Palermo.