Bentham on Democracy Courts and Codification (Paperback)

Drawing upon original manuscripts and The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham this collection represents the latest scholarship on Bentham s late and mature thought on constitutional law. The contributions cover a diverse range of major topics from official aptitude or competency to the interests of women and explore Bentham s writings on courts codification and cosmopolitanism. Together its chapters challenge the received notion based on early jurisprudential writings that Bentham s constitutional thought is authoritarian and show that Bentham as a constitutional theorist offers a distinctive liberal perspective. Freeing Bentham s theories from their long sentences and unfamiliar terminology these essays make accessible Bentham s subtle and important ideas on liberal democracy. By shining a light on Bentham s mature thought this volume offers a refreshingly comprehensive detailed and authentic account of Bentham s theory of democracy.