How Should Lawyers Use Sociological Ideas? Juristic Practice and Social Science?
Editors
Taekema, S
Van Klink, B
De Been, W
Pagination
242 - 262 (21)
Publisher
Location
Journal
Facts and Norms in Law
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Can sociological inquiries play an important role in addressing juristic issues? Are they debarred from doing so by a necessary separation of ‘is’ and ‘ought’ – by the divide between a sociological concern to understand social facts and a juristic concern to interpret and develop legal norms? This paper argues that the fact-norm divide may not be an absolute bar in this context. Law is a ‘socially porous’ phenomenon. While sociological inquiries cannot solve normative problems of law, they can reveal and explain much not only about the contexts in which juristic problems are addressed, but also why these problems take the form they do, why certain kinds of juristic arguments may tend to prevail over others, and what the parameters of juristic debate are likely to be in specific contexts.
Authors
COTTERRELL, RCollections
- Department of Law [844]