Public and private: Legal, political and philosophical perspectives. . - Reviews - book review

Public and Private: Legal, Political and Philosophical Perspectives. Maurizio Passerin d'Entreves and Ursula Vogel, editors. Routledge. [pounds sterling]45.00. 201 pages. ISBN 0-415-16683-7. This collection of nine essays probes the various consequences of the difference between public and private in society, politics, the law and government.

The book's aim is to give readers a 'rich and nuanced understanding of the complex theoretical, legal and political issues arising out of a study of the relations between the public and the private'. The contributions are prefaced by an introduction by the two editors and then divided into two parts. The first deals with philosophical and political perspectives and includes four essays on various aspects of the division. The four essays in the second part discuss the legal perspectives of the distinction between public and private. The final essay, by Ursula Vogel, on 'the peculiar case of marriage' is one of the most perceptive. In it the author concludes that countries can no longer rely on marriage 'to provide society and the state with that guarantee of order and stability which, in the past, was cemented in the order of gender'. Marriage 'can no longer be insulated against the recognition of individual rights'.

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