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Full-Text Articles in Legal History
On The Historical School Of Jurisprudence, Robert E. Rodes
On The Historical School Of Jurisprudence, Robert E. Rodes
Journal Articles
Legal theory has tended to treat the Historical School as a poor relation, but it has important contributions to make. Developed in opposition to the one-size-fits-all form of natural law that eventuated in the Code Napoleon, it attributes law to a Volksgeist, the spirit of a people, as developed in the peculiar historical experience of that people. The original German proponents of the school had trouble explaining the reception of Roman law in Germany, but despite the importation of technical elements from without, a people's laws are in fact part of their culture and of their spiritual heritage as these …
The Jurisprudence Of John Howard Yoder, Thomas L. Shaffer
The Jurisprudence Of John Howard Yoder, Thomas L. Shaffer
Journal Articles
John Howard Yoder, prophet and theologian, died in his office at Notre Dame on December 30, 1997, the day after his seventieth birthday. Peter Steinfels's obituary in the New York Times of January 7, 1998, described my friend and colleague Yoder as "a Mennonite theologian whose writings on Christianity and politics had a major impact on contemporary Christian thinking about the church and social ethics." Steinfels did not describe Yoder's thought as jurisprudence; neither, for that matter, did Yoder. But there was (and is), throughout Yoder's scholarship, an implicit theology of law, a jurisprudence. A jurisprudence that is particularly noticeable …
Non-Representational Jurisprudence: A Centennial Reading Of "The Path Of The Law", Robert E. Rodes
Non-Representational Jurisprudence: A Centennial Reading Of "The Path Of The Law", Robert E. Rodes
Journal Articles
This paper analyzes particular passages in Holmes's famous lecture, and notes important inconsistencies and failings in his approach. After arguing strongly that moral considerations should not enter into legal judgments, he criticizes legal judgments in the light of moral considerations. After defining law as a prediction of what the courts will do, he seems to criticize courts for getting the law wrong in their decisions. His advice to learn the legal profession by studying law from the standpoint of a bad man leaves out of account the numerous potential clients who wish to be law abiding citizens and to seal …
Some Reasons For A Restoration Of Natural Law Jurisprudence, Charles E. Rice
Some Reasons For A Restoration Of Natural Law Jurisprudence, Charles E. Rice
Journal Articles
The growing influence of utilitarianism and legal positivism in American jurisprudence today and the decline of natural law have produced an ominous shift in the foundation of our legal system. This shift is illustrated by various courts' approaches to momentous legal issues of the Twentieth Century such as abortion and euthanasia. Ultimately, legal positivism is unacceptable as a jurisprudential framework because it provides no inherent limits on the power of the state and no basis for determining what is just. In contrast, the natural law provides a jurisprudential framework that both guides and limits the civil law. It therefore is …