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Retrieving Positivism: Law As Bibliolatry, Frederick C. Decoste
Retrieving Positivism: Law As Bibliolatry, Frederick C. Decoste
Dalhousie Law Journal
Legal positivism is a curious phenomenon in both its theoretical and sociological parts. It is curious as theory because its very existence, as theory, is often questioned, and because, even when its existence is admitted, the nature of the theory, and who does and does not qualify as an adherent most often remains in dispute. It is curious sociologically because rare is the legal theoretician who forthrightly endorses positivism: positivists, it would appear, are as scarce as the formalists among whom they used to be numbered.
Critical Legal Theory And The Politics Of Pragmatism, Peter D. Swan
Critical Legal Theory And The Politics Of Pragmatism, Peter D. Swan
Dalhousie Law Journal
In this century mainstream legal scholarship in the United States has been subjected to various "crises of confidence" over the nature of the adjudication process. One of the key features of more traditional legal scholarship has been a belief in legal texts such as the constitution, statutes and precedents which are said to possess discrete and objective meaning capable of being discovered by objective detached observers. This belief in the authority of the text has been most clearly expressed in American constitutional law scholarship which has been dominated until recently by the quest to reveal the public moral values that …