The fox knows many things, the Greeks said, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. In his most comprehensive work Ronald Dworkin argues that value in all its forms is one big thing: that what truth is, life means, morality requires, and justice demands are different aspects of the same large question. He develops original theories on a great variety of issues very rarely considered in the same book: moral skepticism, literary, artistic, and historical interpretation, free will, ancient moral theory, being good and living well, liberty, equality, and law among many other topics. What we think about any one of these must stand up, eventually, to any argument we find compelling about the rest.
Skepticism in all its forms—philosophical, cynical, or post-modern—threatens that unity. The Galilean revolution once made the theological world of value safe for science. But the new republic gradually became a new empire: the modern philosophers inflated the methods of physics into a totalitarian theory of everything. They invaded and occupied all the honorifics—reality, truth, fact, ground, meaning, knowledge, and being—and dictated the terms on which other bodies of thought might aspire to them, and skepticism has been the inevitable result. We need a new revolution. We must make the world of science safe for value.

In this famous treatise, a Supreme Court Justice describes the conscious and unconscious processes by which a judge decides a case. He discusses the sources of information to which he appeals for guidance and analyzes the contribution that considerations of precedent, logical consistency, custom, social welfare, and standards of justice and morals have in shaping his decisions.

明清时，中国没有发生欧美“工业革命”那种以机器大规模生产的经济变化，清末以前也并未出现“民主宪政”之类的法律与政治改革运动，但是仍然出现许多有意义的社会变迁。本书有系统地描述并论证明清中国经济与法律的发展历程及其历史意义，点出探究明清经济史的重要意义，提出明清中国也有商业法律的主张。
本书为使读者能容易理解当时中国经济与法律互动的复杂性，先介绍十六至十九世纪之间的中国经济变动趋势，以下各章展开对明清中国商业法律的说明与分析。作者将研究视角做了较大范围的扩充，不仅讨论处理市场交易、商事纠纷与商业契约的法律规范本身，也分析当时中国用以运作商业法律的制度变迁，更进一步将“非西方”地区的历史完整地纳入，以说明一些重要的经济与法律变迁究竟是如何逐渐由明清中国部分地区往外扩散至全国，进而改写了既有的近代世界经济史。

There are two kinds of knowledge law school teaches: legal rules on the one hand and tools for thinking about legal problems on the other. Although the tools are far more interesting and useful than the rules, they tend to be neglected in favor of other aspects of the curriculum. In "The Legal Analyst", Ward Farnsworth brings together in one place all of the most powerful of those tools for thinking about law. From classic ideas in game theory such as the "Prisoner's Dilemma" and the "Stag Hunt" to psychological principles such as hindsight bias and framing effects, from ideas in jurisprudence such as the slippery slope to more than two dozen other such principles, Farnsworth's guide leads readers through the fascinating world of legal thought. Each chapter introduces a single tool and shows how it can be used to solve different types of problems. The explanations are written in clear, lively language and illustrated with a wide range of examples. "The Legal Analyst" is an indispensable user's manual for law students, experienced practitioners seeking a one-stop guide to legal principles, or anyone else with an interest in the law.

当今世界，大陆法系与英美法系的融和日渐明显。我国虽传统上属于大陆法系，但在我国建设社会主义法治国家的进程中，尤其是近年来我国民法典的制订工作已经提上了重要的议事日程。在此情况下，我们在立足本国国情的基础上，也应当充分借鉴两大法系的先进法学理论和立法、司法经验。
就英美法而言，其许多法律领域，尤其是在合同法、侵权法等领域，不仅是其本国法律文化的重要组成部分，也为世界各国所广泛借鉴。由于语言和法律文化方面的差异，我们对英美法的了解仍然是比较欠缺的，甚至对英美法中的某些基本概念及其制度内涵产生了一些误读、误解。由潘汉典教授等学者组织编写的《元照英美法辞典》，在全面介绍英美法的基本制度、概念等方面填补了目前我国法律辞书在此方面的空白。
本书的特点主要体现在如下方面：一是编译者的权威性。本书以倪征日奥、王名扬、杨铁梁等八位国内外著名学者为学术顾问，并组织中国人民大学法学院、北京大学法学院、中国社会科学院法学所等多家国内著名法科院校、科研机构中的二百余专家、学者参阅大量资料文献，历经多年，反复修订而成，并最终由徐开墅等数十位专家学者加以审定。二是收录范围的广泛性。收入及注释5万余词条，包含词组的一般法律用法，附图表30余份，历史文件八件。内容涉及法理、宪法、刑法、民法等英美法各大领域。三是对词条解释的准确性、全面性。每个词条都标明了其辞源，包括拉丁文、法文、德文。对每一词条的解释非常全面，即便此种意义在现代法已罕用，对学术研究极负价值。而且由于编译者熟悉我国法律制度，对各个法律领域的基本制度都有较为精深的研究，因此，本书对我国法和英美法的基本概念对应准确，解释极为精到。四是本书具有较强的可读性，既可适用于法学研究人员，也可适用于法官、律师等实务界人士。本书对于非法学专业人士研究英美政治、经济、文化等社会制度也极具参考价值。

Oliver Wendell Holmes served on the U S Supreme Court from 1902 to 1932. He is considered to be one of the most influential judges ever to serve on the court. His wit and concise writing style make his opinions some of the best-written documents to come out of the Supreme Court. Holmes considered law to be the barometer of our moral life. The history of law is also the history of man's moral development. The practice of law makes for better citizens and good men.

《法律之门》是美国各大学法学院比较通用的一本法律教科书，全面介绍了英美法，描述了英美法的整个适用过程，将法理、判例、资料甚至文学素材有机地结合起来，采取讨论的方法陈述法理。

本书把散见于1940年《法理学》一书中的有关法理学思想发展的历史资料集中在第一部分。本书第二部发和第三部分中对一般法律理论的实质性问题所作的论述，乃是以某些蕴含在我研究法理学问题的进路中的哲学假设和方法论假设为基础的。
翻译这部综合性的法律哲学著作，主要有两个目的：一是试图通过这样的努力为中国法学的重建做一些知识上的基础工作，因为当时的中国法学在现代法制建设的要求或驱动过程中正陷于历史性的困境之中：一方面要为这种法制建设的努力作正当性的论证，另一方面又因法学研究的长期停顿而明显缺乏这方面的法律知识支援。第二个目的则是试图通过这部法律哲学著作的翻译/思考实践而对自己在法律方面的疑惑做一些知识上的清理工作，因为我在当时就已经明确意识到，在法律哲学思考的领域中，人、自然和社会在法律架构下的关系，人或法律人与法律在知识上的关系以及法律权威的正当性等问题极为繁复，绝非人们一般想象那般自明简单。