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Does the Unconstrained Legal Actor Exist?
Author(s) -
ROBERTSON MICHAEL
Publication year - 2007
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.1467-9337.2007.00358.x
Subject(s) - jurisprudence , legal positivism , character (mathematics) , positivism , epistemology , legal formalism , law , legal realism , sociology , legal research , philosophy , political science , black letter law , comparative law , private law , mathematics , geometry
. The unconstrained legal actor, typically a judge, is a central character in modern jurisprudence. He is feared by legal formalists, legal positivists, and Ronald Dworkin alike. He is lauded by some legal realist and critical legal studies theorists. Stanley Fish says that all of this theorising is pointless because the unconstrained legal actor cannot exist. My paper evaluates Fish's arguments for this surprising position.