Jurisprudence is aimed at students new to the study of legal philosophy, also offering new ideas and perspectives that will be of interest to established scholars. Bix seeks to explain the often complex and difficult ideas in Jurisprudence clearly, but in a way that avoids distortion of the ideas through over-simplification. As well as introducing the reader to the fundamental themes in legal philosophy, it also describes and comments critically on the writing of the foremost legal theorists. The fifth edition has been revised and updated, taking into account the most recent scholarly work and elaborating on many of the key ideas and arguments.