Premium
American legal realism and sociological jurisprudence: The methodological roots of a science of law
Author(s) -
Ingersoll David E.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6696(198110)17:4<490::aid-jhbs2300170405>3.0.co;2-a
Subject(s) - jurisprudence , legal realism , realism , law , premise , sociology , legal formalism , epistemology , confusion , political science , philosophy , legal research , comparative law , psychology , black letter law , private law , psychoanalysis
There remains a good deal of confusion concerning the respective roles legal realism and sociological jurisprudence played in the movement to demythologize the study of law in the United States. It is asserted that this confusion is the result of a failure to recognize that American legal realism was part of the intellectual tradition of the thennew behavioral sciences–in particular, adopting as its methodological premise the ideal of a divorce between the study of fact and value. In contrast, sociological jurisprudence under the influence of Roscoe Pound, relied upon the tradition of pragmatic philosophy, ultimately denying that the realist's separation was either possible or desirable. As such, American legal realism should be seen as the true precursor of more modern attempts to engage in the study of judicial behavioralism and to attempt more scientific studies of the judicial process.