Legal philosophy in which jurisprudence should rely on empirical evidence
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Judicial interpretation
Forms
Constitutional interpretation
Statutory interpretation
General rules of interpretation
Plain meaning rule
Mischief rule
Golden rule
General theories of interpretation
Living Constitution / Living tree / Living instrument
Originalism (original meaning)
Original intent (legislative intent, legislative history)
Strict constructionism
Textualism
Purposive approach
Common good constitutionalism
Legal realism
Legal process
Legal formalism
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Legal realism is a naturalistic approach to law; it is the view that jurisprudence should emulate the methods of natural science, that is, it should rely on empirical evidence. Hypotheses must be tested against observations of the world.[citation needed]
Legal realists believe that legal science should only investigate law with the value-free methods of natural sciences, rather than through philosophical inquiries into the nature and meaning of the law that are separate and distinct from the law as it is actually practiced. Indeed, legal realism asserts that the law cannot be separated from its application, nor can it be understood outside of its application. As such, legal realism emphasizes law as it actually exists, rather than law as it ought to be. Locating the meaning of law in places such as legal opinions issued by judges and their deference or dismissal of past precedent and the doctrine of stare decisis, it stresses the importance of understanding the factors involved in judicial decision making.
The United States of America is described as "home of the principal realist tradition in jurisprudence".[according to whom?] In Scandinavia Axel Hägerström developed another realist tradition that was influential in European jurisprudential circles for most of the 20th century.[1]
^Duxbury, Neil (2005). "English Jurisprudence between Austin and Hart". Virginia Law Review. 91 (1): 1–91. ISSN 0042-6601. JSTOR 3649419.
Legalrealism is a naturalistic approach to law; it is the view that jurisprudence should emulate the methods of natural science, that is, it should rely...
New legalrealism (NLR) is an emerging school of thought in American legal philosophy. Although it draws on the older legalrealism from the first half...
naturalism Legal process school LegalrealismLegalism (Chinese philosophy) Libertarian theories of law Living Constitution Natural law New legalrealism Philosophy...
besides legal rules that led to a legal decision. There are two separate schools of legalrealism: American legalrealism and Scandinavian legalrealism. American...
of formalism is legalrealism, which has been said to be "[p]erhaps the most pervasive and accepted theory of how judges arrive at legal decisions." This...
The influence of legalrealism unsettled American jurisprudence for decades. Alan Hunt writes that the period "between the realism of the 1930s and the...
Philosophical realism – usually not treated as a position of its own but as a stance towards other subject matters – is the view that a certain kind of...
with the school of legalrealism. The Journal of Legal Studies has identified Llewellyn as one of the twenty most cited American legal scholars of the 20th...
Italian school Jainism Kantianism Kyoto school Lawsonomy Legal positivism LegalrealismLegalism (Chinese philosophy) Liberalism Libertarianism Libertinism...
of the leading figures of Scandinavian legal realism. His debate in 1959 with the prominent British legal philosopher H. L. A. Hart – which began in the...
and a response to the 'formalism' of legal positivists. Legal skepticism is sometimes known as legalrealism. According to Richard Posner, "The skeptical...
"right answer" thesis. In its strongest form it is an extreme version of legalrealism. It argues that nothing is law until it has been promulgated by an official...
dean, he gained notice for Yale's development of the philosophy of legalrealism. Hutchins was thirty years old when he became Chicago's president in...
legal philosopher. He studied law at Uppsala from 1915 to 1920 and was a pupil of Axel Hägerström, the spiritual father of Scandinavian legalrealism...
from a court. The theory played a key role in influencing American legalrealism. H. L. A. Hart criticized the theories in his The Concept of Law (1961)...
Originalism is a legal theory that bases constitutional, judicial, and statutory interpretation of text on the original understanding at the time of its...
Prentice-Hall. Llewellyn, Karl N. (1986). Karl N. Llewellyn on LegalRealism. Birmingham, AL: Legal Classics Library. (Contains penetrating classic "The Bramble...
Mexico. Oliphant is generally regarded as a representative of American legalrealism and is famous for his statement that the principle of stare decisis...
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