The empire of justice is Ronald Dworkin's masterpiece, studied and discussed by professors and theorists, by lawyers and judges, by students and actors of political life in the United States and around the world. This work, a complete exposition of his theory of law, begins by asking the question at the very heart of the entire legal system: how do judges establish - or how they should establish - what is the law? Dworkin shows that judges must decide difficult cases by interpreting and not simply applying legal decisions of the past and formulates a general theory about what interpretation is - both in literature and law - that allows discrimination which can prevail over others.
In this sense, any legal interpretation reflects an underlying theory about the general nature of the law, which Dworkin evaluates in its two main aspects. One, conventionalism, considers that the law of a community is only what established conventions say it is. Another, pragmatism, assumes that legal practice is better understood as an instrument of society to achieve its objectives. Dworkin reveals himself against both with vigorous and persuasive arguments to defend a third theory: the right as integrity, which he holds as a fundamental objective is to respond to the need for a political community to act coherently and in accordance with principles established for all its members.