MacCormick, Neil 1941- (Donald Neil MacCormick)

PERSONAL:

Born May 27, 1941, in Glasgow, Scotland; son of John MacDonald (a lawyer) and Margaret (a social worker) MacCormick; married Caroline Rona Barr (an economist), November 6, 1965 (divorced, 1992); married Flora Margaret Milne, 1992; children: (first marriage) Janet, Morag, Sheena. Education: University of Glasgow, M.A. (philosophy and English literature; with first class honors), 1963; Balliol College, Oxford, B.A., 1965, M.A. 1969; University of Edinburgh, LL.D., 1982. Hobbies and other interests: Hill walking, sailing, bagpipes.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Edinburgh Scotland. Office—The University of Edinburgh, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh, EH8 9YL, Scotland. E-mail—N.MacCormick@ed.ac.uk.

CAREER:

Lawyer, educator, writer, and broadcaster. Called to the Bar at Inner Temple; University of St. Andrews, Dundee, Scotland, lecturer in jurisprudence, 1965-67; Oxford University, Oxford, England, fellow of Balliol College, 1967-72; University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, Regius Professor of Public Law, beginning 1972, dean of faculty of law, 1973-76 and 1985-86, provost of law and social sciences, 1993-97. Also member of national executive committee of Scottish National Party, 1978-81; member of the Economic and Social Research Council, United Kingdom, 1995; Scottish National Party Member of European Parliament (MEP) for Scotland 1999-2004.

MEMBER:

Association for Legal and Social Philosophy (president, 1976-78), Society of Public Teachers of Law (vice president, 1982-83; president, 1984-85), British Academy (fellow, 1986), Royal Society of Edinburgh (fellow, 1986), Aristotelian Society.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Honorary degrees from Uppsala Universitet, LLD, 1986; University of the Saarland, Germany, LLD, 1994; Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, LLD, 1995.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) The Scottish Debate, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1970.

(Editor) Lawyers in Their Social Setting, W. Green and Son (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1976.

Legal Reasoning and Legal Theory, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1978.

H.L.A. Hart, Stanford University Press (Stanford, CA), 1981, 2nd edition, 2008.

Legal Right and Social Democracy: Essays in Legal and Political Philosophy, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1982.

(With O. Weinberger) Grundlagen des institutionalistischen rechtspositivismus, Duncker & Humblot (Berlin, Germany), 1985.

(Editor, with Stavros Panou and Luigi Lombardi Vallauri) Conditions of Validity and Cognition in Modern Legal Thought, F. Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden (Stuttgart, Germany), 1985.

(With O. Weinberger) An Institutional Theory of Law: New Approaches to Legal Positivism, D. Reidel (Hingham, MA), 1986.

(Editor, with P. Birks) The Legal Mind: Essays for Tony Honore, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1986.

(Editor, with Zaren Bankowski) Enlightenment Rights and Revolution, Aberdeen University Press (Aberdeen, Scotland), 1989.

(Translator, with Ruth Adler) A Theory of Legal Argumentation: The Theory of Rational Discourse as Theory of Legal Justification, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1989.

(Editor, with Paul Amselek) Controversies about Law's Ontology, Edinburgh University Press (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1991.

(Editor, with Robert S. Summers) Interpreting Statutes: A Comparatives Study, Dartmouth (Brookfield, VT), 1991.

(Editor, with Aulis Aarnio) Legal Reasoning, New York University Press (New York, NY), 1992.

(Editor, with Zenon Bankowski) The Judicial Application of Law, Kluwer Academic Publishers (Boston, MA), 1992.

(Editor, with Werner Krawietz and Georg Henrik von Wright) Prescriptive Formality and Normative Rationality in Modern Legal Systems, Duncker & Humblot (Berlin, Germany), 1994.

Interpreting Precedents: A Comparative Study, Ashgate/Dartmouth (Brookfield, VT), 1997.

(Editor) Constructing Legal Systems: "European Union" in Legal Theory, Kluwer Academic (Boston, MA), 1997.

Questioning Sovereignty: Law, State, and Nation in the European Commonwealth, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2002.

(Editor, with Fernando Atria) Law and legal Interpretation, Ashgate/Dartmouth (Burlington, VT), 2003.

Rhetoric and the Rule of Law: A Theory of Legal Reasoning, Oxford University Press (Oxford; NY), 2005.

Who's Afraid of a European Constitution?, Impprint Academic (Charlottesville, VA), 2005.

Institutions of Law: An Essay in Legal Theory, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to legal and philosophical journals and periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Neil MacCormick told CA: "My original philosophical training was in the Scottish style, strongly influenced by philosopher and historian William D. Lamont's Kantianism. At Oxford University, I became interested in (though never a devotee of) ‘ordinary language philosophy’ as represented in jurisprudence and legal philosophy by the work of H.L.A. Hart, then professor of jurisprudence. As a fellow of Balliol, I found Hart an inspiring figure and intellectual leader and my debt to him (also, perhaps, my own discovery of the possibilities and the limits of his position and style) is clear from my book H.L.A. Hart. In political philosophy I have tried to combine a liberal conception of liberty with a social democratic conception of social justice, and to define in these terms acceptable principles of nationalism for a new world order in which (happily) the old-style nation-state of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has been transcended, at least in Western Europe."

Over the years, the author's primary scholarly contributions have been to analytical legal theory, studies of legal reasoning, and legal and political philosophy pri- marily in the theory of sovereignty. He has authored or edited several books in these areas, including his early book, Legal Reasoning and Legal Theory, which looks at the various aspects of an argument in a law case that make the argument good or bad. Although published nearly three decades later, Rhetoric and the Rule of Law: A Theory of Legal Reasoning continues the author's thought in the area of law and reasoning. This time he explores whether or not legal reasoning is rationally persuasive as it is conducted within a certain structure using common, recognizable arguments. "In Rhetoric and the Rule of Law …, MacCormick sums up the developments of his views on legal reasoning since the publication of Legal Reasoning," noted Torben Spaak in Constitutional Commentary. Spaak went on to write that "I warmly recommend this book to anyone interested in the methods and techniques of legal reasoning in general, or, more specifically, in the question of the dependence of the ideal of the Rule of Law on the methods and techniques of legal reasoning." Spaak further stated: "MacCormick is an engaging writer who knows his trade, and his works on legal reasoning in particular always repay serious study." In his 2007 book, Institutions of Law: An Essay in Legal Theory, the author examines the law and legal systems in the modern world and outlines his institutional theory of law, which defines law as an "institutional normative order." A summary of the author's books on the University of Edinburgh School of Law Web site noted: "It is written with a view to elucidating law, legal concepts and legal institutions in a manner that takes account of current scholarly controversies but does not get bogged down in them."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Cambridge Law Journal, July, 1987, K. Lipstein, review of The Legal Mind: Essays for Tony Honore, p. 365; November, 1992, David Miers, review of Interpreting Statutes: A Comparative Study, p. 538.

Constitutional Commentary, spring, 2006, Torben Spaak, review of Rhetoric and the Rule of Law: A Theory of Legal Reasoning, p. 121.

Contemporary Review, November, 2000, review of Questioning Sovereignty: Law, State and Nation in the European Commonwealth, p. 319.

Cornell Law Review, January, 1983, David Lyons, review of H.L.A. Hart, p. 257; January, 1996, Daniel A. Farber, review of Interpreting Statutes, p. 513; July, 1997, John Bell, review of Interpreting Precedents: A Comparative Study, p. 1243.

Duquesne Law Review, winter, 1982, Ruggero D. Aldisert, "Legal Reasoning and Legal Theory," pp. 383-398.

Ethics, July, 1983, Stanley Bates, review of H.L.A. Hart, p. 809; January, 1988, M.J. Detmold, review of An Institutional Theory of Law: New Approaches to Legal Positivism, p. 395; July, 1993, Steven J. Burton, review of Controversies about Law's Ontology, p. 851.

Florida Bar Journal, January, 1982, Stevan Northcutt, review of H.L.A. Hart, p. 84.

International and Comparative Law Quarterly, January, 1992, William Dale, review of Interpreting Statutes, p. 232; April, 1998, Elspeth Reid, review of Interpreting Precedents, p. 483.

Journal of Law and Society, September, 2006, Scott Veitch, review of Rhetoric and the Rule of Law, p. 492.

Law and Philosophy, July, 2007, Torben Spaak, review of Legal Reasoning and Legal Theory, 2nd edition, p. 343.

Law and Politics Book Review, March, 2006, Lief H. Carter, review of Rhetoric and the Rule of Law, p. 218.

Law Quarterly Review, October, 1983, Roger Brownsword, review of H.L.A. Hart, p. 653; April, 2001, Richard H.S. Tur, review of Questioning Sovereignty, p. 347; July, 2006, Stephen Guest, review of Rhetoric and the Rule of Law, p. 515.

Law Society Journal, June, 2005, Mdary Rose Liverani, "Judges' Critics Given Something to Think About," interview with author, p. 28.

Legal Studies, July, 1982, John Finch, review of H.L.A. Hart, p. 217; November, 1983, N.E. Simmonds, review of Legal Right and Social Democracy: Essays in Legal and Political Philosophy, p. 334.

London Review of Books, March 9, 2006, John Gardner, "What Security Is There against Arbitrary Government?," review of Rhetoric and the Rule of Law, p. 19.

Michigan Law Review, February, 1984, review of Legal Right and Social Democracy, p. 781.

Minnesota Law Review, June, 1982, Rolf E. Sartorius, review of H.L.A. Hart, p. 953.

Modern Law Review, November, 1983, John Griffith, review of Legal Right and Social Democracy, p. 797; May, 1999, Maurice Adams, "The Rhetoric of Precedent and Comparative Legal Research," p. 464.

New Law Journal, October 31, 1986, Roger B.M. Cotterrell, review of The Legal Mind, p. 1028.

Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, summer, 1990, Peter Ingram, "A Theory of Legal Argumentation: The Theory of Rational Discourse as Theory of Legal Justification," pp. 199-201.

Oregon Law Review, fall, 1983, Ronald Moore, review of H.L.A. Hart.

Osgoode Hall Law Journal, June, 1982, Patrick Nowell-Smith, review of H.L.A. Hart, p. 419; spring, 2006, Andrew Sunter, review of Rhetoric and the Rule of Law, pp. 245-246.

Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, spring, 1993, John Bell, review of Interpreting Statutes, p. 130-141; spring, 2001, Hans Lindahl, review of Questioning Sovereignty, pp. 165-180.

Public Law, summer, 1987, Roger Cotterrell, review of The Legal Mind, pp. 307-308; spring, 2001, Evelyn Ellis, review of Questioning Sovereignty, pp. 198-199.

Ratio Juris, December, 1994, Maria Angeles Barrere Unzueta, review of An Institutional Theory of Law, p. 353.

Reference & Research Book News, November, 1997, review of Interpreting Precedents, p. 113.

Res Publica: A Journal of Legal and Social Philosophy, fall, 2007, Christoph Kletzer, review of Rhetoric and the Rule of Law, pp. 319-325.

Southern California Law Review, July, 1982, Donald H.J. Hermann, review of H.L.A. Hart, p. 1155; March 24, 2000, Geoffrey Marshall, review of Questioning Sovereignty, p. 14.

Times Higher Education Supplement, February 10, 2006, Oliver Popplewell, "Eaten Up, but Not with Guilt," review of Rhetoric and the Rule of Law, p. 30.

Times Literary Supplement, March 24, 2000, Geoffrey Marshall, review of Questioning Sovereignty, p. 14.

University of Toronto Law Journal, summer, 1983, Rodger Beehler, review of H.L.A. Hart, pp. 356-370; spring, 2002, Michael Milde, review of Questioning Sovereignty, pp. 275-301.

Vanderbilt Law Review, March, 1982, Kenneth Henley, review of H.L.A. Hart, p. 471.

ONLINE

Scottish Politics,http://www.alba.org.uk/ (December 14, 2007), brief profile of author.

University of Edinburgh School of Law Web site,http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/ (December 14, 2007), faculty profile of author.