'Jurisprudence', the author writes, 'is a most hospitable word. It can be understood to include not only the analysis of legal concepts, but also all those topics which are discussed under the rubric 'philosophy of law'. Writers on these subjects are either those concerned with the rational basis of law - why law is binding on us and what are the limits on the binding force; or those who seek to formulate an ideal system of law.' It is these writers and their theories and arguments, so far as they make contact with positive law, which form the main topic of the present work, which was originally published in 1949.