My dissertation for LLD (or JSD) Att beskriva rätten (To Describe Law), which was written under my bachelor surname of Andréasson, was presented for public exa- nation on Nov 4, 2004. Since then the text has been developed in two separate directions. On the one hand, three of the chapters have been made more accessible to students of jurisprudence and have been included in the second edition of the te- book Rättsfilosofi, samhälle och moral genom tiderna edited by Joakim Nergelius. On the other hand, the whole dissertation has been revised, translated and published as the present book. In the time that has passed since my dissertation, many things have changed. On the personal level, my friend and tutor, Aleksander Peczenick, was sadly taken away from my circle of colleagues. In contrast to that sad event, I have spent two nine-month periods on paternity leave, raising my two children, Selma and Bernhard. This past year, I have decided to move from theory to practice and have started working in a court of law. During my work on the dissertation, I had the opportunity to spend a rewarding term at Rutgers University in Camden, NJ visiting Professor Dennis Patterson. Since this book is a continuation of that project, it feels appropriate to repeat my thanks to Professor Patterson and STINT (The Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education) for making that visit possible.