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Law as a Bridge Between Is and Ought
Author(s) -
BODENHEIMER EDGAR
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
ratio juris
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.344
H-Index - 10
eISSN - 1467-9337
pISSN - 0952-1917
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9337.1988.tb00010.x
Subject(s) - normative , bridge (graph theory) , law , set (abstract data type) , social reality , sociology , legal norm , process (computing) , law and economics , political science , epistemology , computer science , philosophy , social science , medicine , programming language , operating system
. Law has variously been described as part of empirical social reality or as a set of normative prescriptions defining desirable conduct. The author takes the view that a legal system normally represents an amalgam of “is” and “ought” elements. It is operative in part as a living law of actual human conduct, in another part as an instrumentality for transforming unfulfilled social ideals or goals into reality. A different blending of “is” and “ought” factors often occurs in the judicial process, when an application of given legal norms is combined with some injection of law deemed desirable by the judges.