Publication Date
2007
Abstract
Milner Ball would be the last person to claim to have constructed a system. After all, he writes in the essay form, one that is "tentative, reflective, suggestive, contradictory, and incomplete."' It is a style that suggests there is more afoot than any science or philosophy is likely to conceive and that much of what is most important has to be shown, not stated. Surely, the notion of a system, as in "the legal system," reflects many of the qualities that, as we will see, he is most at pains to criticize. However, there are definitely themes in his work that flow together, that have important relations with one another, even if those relationships are, to use one of his favorite terms, "dialectical," or in strong tension. My goal here is to try to map a few of those streams, and often to do so by seeking clarification by contrast with the thought of Hannah Arendt, with whom Ball is often in dialogue throughout his books.' They are natural conversation partners. Both privilege reflection on concrete experience -Arendt, political experience, and Ball, legal experience understood as manifesting deliberative politics over purely conceptual analysis in addressing questions like, "What is law?" or "What is politics?" I think that the ways in which Ball's thinking converges with Arendt's are illuminating, and the ways in which he takes issue with this most distinguished of twentieth century political philosophers provides a helpful way to navigate some of his most important streams. Both thinkers are engaged in the enterprise of framing metaphors for understanding the public world, because they both know that "the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor.
Recommended Citation
Burns, Robert P.
(2007)
"The Practice of Law in the Peaceable Kingdom,"
Georgia Law Review: Vol. 41:
No.
3, Article 7.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/glr/vol41/iss3/7