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A Pragmatic Model Of Law, Daniel C.K. Chow

Washington Law Review

While all of us are pragmatic in an informal or colloquial sense in many instances in daily life, pragmatism as applied to law has a deeper, jurisprudential sense The author suggests that modern legal pragmatism presents a model of law that avoids the serious philosophical errors of the traditional model of law, which is based upon assumptions that are untenable in light of fundamental developments in twentieth century thought. The traditional model justifies law by grounding law in eternal, immutable and transcendental foundations. All modern legal pragmatists reject the notion that transcendental foundations sustain law. Modern legal pragmatism arose in …