Professor Mitchell Berman, the Leon Meltzer Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy, was awarded the Jurisprudence Section Article Award from the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) for his article, How Practices Make Principles, and How Principles Make Rules, 28 Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 299 (2024).
The Jurisprudence Section Article Award is given annually to a tenured or tenure-track scholar in recognition of an exceptional philosophical work of legal scholarship. Berman’s honor was bestowed during the AALS Annual Meeting this past January, with more than 2,500 law teachers, librarians, and law school administrators were in attendance.
A seven-member Executive Board selected Berman’s article. “We were pleased to recognize Mitchell Berman’s illuminating article, which adds to his long record of impressive scholarship.” said Aditi Bagchi, an AALS Executive Board Member.
Berman’s article introduces “principled positivism,” a take on legal theory that explains how legal practices shape principles, which then define legal rules. His approach challenges Hart’s view by reducing the need for judicial consensus and highlighting the role of principles in shaping legal rights and duties. Using examples from American statutory and constitutional law, Berman shows how his theory more effectively addresses Dworkin’s key challenges to positivist legal theory. Berman further explains why the revisions he proposes are significant both legally and philosophically, highlighting their impact on contemporary debates in jurisprudence.
“To receive this recognition from my peers is a great honor, ” said Berman. “The paper develops an important plank of an ongoing research project, making me especially gratified and grateful that colleagues see value in it.”
Berman’s research interests span American constitutional law and theory, philosophy of criminal law, general jurisprudence, and philosophy of sport. Berman’s work includes a non-originalist theory of constitutional interpretation, a new positivist account of legal content, and a retributivist justification for criminal punishment.
Berman has published numerous articles and book chapters in top academic journals and is an award-winning teacher. In 2021, he co-authored The Jurisprudence of Sport: Sports and Games as Legal Systems, a textbook that introduces a new approach to legal theory by exploring legal concepts through the lens of sports. This work has helped establish a new field of legal theoretical inquiry, blending law and sport to engage students with complex legal ideas in an accessible way.
Original source can be found here.