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Full-Text Articles in Jurisprudence
Introduction, Emily Sherwin
Introduction, Emily Sherwin
San Diego Law Review
Recent debate about theory in legal scholarship' has raised more questions about theory and law than it has answered. For example, just what is meant by "theory" in the context of law? Is there a form of theory that is uniquely "legal" theory, or is legal theory merely moral theory applied to law? If there is such a thing as legal theory, does the body of positive law, and particularly the decisions of judges, inform legal theory, or does theory inform law? What, if any, are the justifications for constructing theories of law?
Theories Of Areas Of Law, Michael Moore
Theories Of Areas Of Law, Michael Moore
San Diego Law Review
The topic of this symposium is "theories and the law." Since this is such an enormously broad topic, the first thing to do is to narrow it a bit. As I shall discuss it, the topic is not on the central topic of jurisprudence, which is the theory of law. My topic is theories within our law, rather than theories about the nature of law in general. Often we call such theorizing internal to the law we have, "internal jurisprudence," to be contrasted with an "external jurisprudence" that is about law as such. Within internal jurisprudence, there is still considerable …
Two Aspects Of Law And Theory, Ronald J. Allen
Two Aspects Of Law And Theory, Ronald J. Allen
San Diego Law Review
In the last quarter of the twentieth century, there was much ado about law and theory, or the relationship between law and theory, or legal theory, phrases that I take to be synonymous, two aspects of which I want to discuss briefly today. With an introductory sentence like that, the normal expectation would be that the next sentence would somehow work in the phrase "about nothing," and, not wanting to be unpredictable, thus casting doubt on somebody's behavioral theory, I will fulfill this expectation by saying that a fair amount of the ado about legal theory was indeed about nothing. …
Theory Minimalism, Stanley Fish
Theory Minimalism, Stanley Fish
San Diego Law Review
We must begin with a sense of what theory is, and I shall derive mine from a question Herbert Wechsler often put to his students. "Ask yourself," he would say, "'Would I reach the same result if the substantive interests were otherwise?"" The challenge of the question is to the student who has determined where the right lies in a disputed matter, and who now must demonstrate that, even if every circumstantial particular of the case were varied-if the plaintiff were a woman instead of a man, if the object of hate speech was a descendant of someone who came …
Theory's A What Comes Natcherly, Larry Alexander
Theory's A What Comes Natcherly, Larry Alexander
San Diego Law Review
So what kind of theorizing do we do in law? First, we do empirical, predictive theorizing. We form hypotheses about how the world will be affected by various rules of law, because of their content and form, and by the design of our legal institutions. These hypotheses can be confirmed or falsified. We also form hypotheses about how particular judges will decide future cases, or how legislatures and agencies will react to various proposals. When we do legal history, we reason backwards from effects and form hypotheses about their causes. The second type of theorizing we do is normative. In …