Open AccessChild’s Illusion of Legal Certainty in Jerome Frank’s Legal Psychology
Author(s) -
Dmitriy E. Tonkov
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
istoriâ gosudarstva i prava
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1812-3805
DOI - 10.18572/1812-3805-2021-3-38-44
Subject(s) - certainty , legal certainty , clarity , illusion , law , legal realism , mythology , element (criminal law) , realism , legal psychology , set (abstract data type) , sociology , epistemology , psychology , political science , philosophy , legal profession , computer science , theology , biochemistry , chemistry , neuroscience , programming language
Publication of the book “Law and the Modern Mind” in 1930 by J. Frank became one of the starting points in the history of American legal realism. The problem of legal certainty is central in the work of J. Frank. For him the vital question was why lawyers, judges and general public “believe in” and “rely on” the myth of certainty and exactness of the legal rules. One of the reasons J. Frank finds in our childish way of thinking that is tend to fixed, stable and immutable set of mechanical rules. According to the works of child psychologists, J. Frank elaborated and described the childish illusion of world’s clarity, the important element of which is the connection of the child with his father, and its counterpart in adult’s desire for legal certainty.