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The Penetration of Social Science into Legal Culture
Author(s) -
LEVINE MURRAY,
HOWE BARBARA
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
law and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.534
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1467-9930
pISSN - 0265-8240
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9930.1985.tb00350.x
Subject(s) - law , supreme court , rhetoric , sociology , field (mathematics) , political science , mathematics , philosophy , pure mathematics , linguistics
Over the past 75 years, social science references in court decisions have changed from an anonymous footnote to an appendix to a brief ( Muller v. Oregon , 1908) to extensive discussion of social science methods and results to changing a rule of law based on social science propositions ( Hovey v. Superior Court , 1980). The acceptance of social science may be traced in state court decisions as well as in Supreme Court cases. The academic field of law has, since its entrance into the university, identified itself with the rhetoric, if not the model of science. Although earlier attempts to introduce social science into law were relatively unsuccessful, there is now a sufficient acceptance and a sufficient professional infrastructure to predict a growing influence of social science in law.