Book Review: David Dyzenhaus and Thomas Poole (eds), Law, Liberty and State: Oakeshott, Hayek and Schmitt on the Rule of Law
| Published date | 01 February 2017 |
| Date | 01 February 2017 |
| Author | Aref Ebadi |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929916676923 |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsPolitical Theory |
Book Reviews 87
The Companion to Raymond Aron seeks to pro-
vide an overview of the works and ideas of the
French sociologist, political thinker and com-
mentator Raymond Aron (1905–1983). The
main aim of the book is to ‘aid in the study of
Aron’s political, sociological and philosophical
thought and writings’ (p. 1). It is especially
directed at an English-reading audience, where
Aron’s ideas remain less known and studied,
often due to the lack of good English transla-
tions of his works.
The volume is divided into three parts, repre-
senting the main themes of Aron’s work: inter-
national relations, philosophy, and the history
of ideas. The long list of contributors includes
French and international scholars of Aron’s
thought, such as Serge Audier, Pierre Hessner,
Perrine Simon-Nahum, Joel Mouric, Iain Stewart,
Daniel J Mahoney and Giulio de Ligio. The
essays seek to shed light on Aron’s versatile and
diverse intellectual production, ranging from
historical analysis to political commentary and
philosophical studies. Each part includes numer-
ous essays on various aspects of Aron’s thought,
from totalitarianism to the Cold War, from the
philosophy of history to the theory of democ-
racy, from Machiavelli to Marx. Furthermore,
the volume includes an essay by Aron’s biogra-
pher, Nicolas Baverez, and a detailed bibliogra-
phy of his works by Elisabeth Dutartre-Michaut.
The volume provides valuable studies of
Aron’s thought. The essays succeed in contex-
tualising Aron in the intellectual horizon of the
twentieth century and in shedding light on the
nuances of his thought. The essays share a com-
mitment to depicting Aron as an original liberal
thinker who made a lasting, if sometimes
underappreciated, contribution to Western lib-
eral thought. Thus, the volume presents a com-
plex, intriguing portrait of an important liberal
thinker that goes beyond his stereotypical repu-
tation as a ‘cold warrior’ and anti-communist.
One of the underlying aims of many of the
essays is to emphasise Aron’s relevance to con-
temporary thought and to highlight his impor-
tance as ‘the greatest figure in French liberalism
of the twentieth century’ (p. 3). It is doubtless
true that, as the contributors to this volume
ceaselessly argue, Aron’s impressive and origi-
nal political analysis deserves greater attention
than it has so far received. Yet sometimes the
reader is left with a feeling that a more critical
rather than celebratory attitude would have
helped some of the essays to do his work justice.
Nonetheless, the volume makes an important
and welcome contribution to the English-
language literature on Raymond Aron.
Or Rosenboim
(University of Cambridge)
© The Author(s) 2016
Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1478929916677890
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Law, Liberty and State: Oakeshott, Hayek
and Schmitt on the Rule of Law by David
Dyzenhaus and Thomas Poole (eds).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
350pp., £64.99 (h/b), ISBN 9781107093386
It can roughly be said that Carl Schmitt,
Michael Oakeshott and Friedrich Hayek are all
critics of some of the Enlightenment’s ideas
such as progress and over-reliance on abstract
Reason in conducting human life. They tried to
draw our attention to the areas that, although
crucial for human well-being, are not justifiable
by the roles of abstract Reason. As it is rightly
said in the book, all of these three men ‘were
associated with a conservative reaction to the
progressive forces of their time, although these
reactions took very different forms’ (p. 2). This
book is a study on ‘the juridical aspects of the
work of Schmitt, Oakeshott and Hayek and the
way that those aspects intersect with their
thinking on liberty and the modern state’ (p. 3).
David Dyzenhaus and Thomas Poole, the
editors of the book, provide a collection of
essays that concentrate on the rule of law in the
writings of these three thinkers. The rise of the
modern state and permissible liberties within it
is one of the major topics in twentieth century
social and political thought. Schmitt, Oakeshott
and Hayek share the idea that ‘the law increas-
ingly became something made or legislated,
connected to functions determined by the
organs of the state and as such a “positive”
rather than a “natural” phenomenon’ (p. 1).
Law, Liberty and State tries to address this mat-
ter and illustrates their alternative views on
such topics. Although the editors assert that ‘no
strict editorial grid plan has been imposed on
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