Ronald Dworkin

In Law's Empire, published in 1986, Dworkin argues that judges should interpret law as a coherent expression of political morality. Law is not just a list of rules or past commands; it also includes principles that make the legal system morally intelligible.

Dworkin argued that legal positivists such as H. L. A. Hart underestimated the role of principles in legal reasoning. His famous example is Riggs v. Palmer, where a court refused to let a murderer inherit under a will.

Judge Hercules is Dworkin's idealized judge who can construct the best coherent interpretation of all relevant legal materials. The figure appears in his account of how difficult cases should be decided through principle, not discretion alone.

Taking Rights Seriously, published in 1977, helped make individual rights central to Anglo-American legal philosophy. Dworkin argues that rights can function as trumps against ordinary policy goals.