Objectivity in Law and Legal Reasoning

Legal theorists consider their discipline as an objective endeavour in line with other fields of science. Objectivity in science is generally regarded as a fundamental condition, informing how science should be practised and how truths may be found. Objective scientists venture to uncover empirical truths about the world and ought to eliminate personal biases, prior commitments and emotional involvement. However, legal theorists are inevitably bound up with a given legal culture. Consequently, their scholarly work derives at least in part from this environment and their subtle interaction with it. This book questions critically, in novel ways and from various perspectives, the possibilities of objectivity of legal theory in the twenty-first century. It transpires that legal theory is unavoidably confronted with varying conceptions of law, underlying ideologies, approaches to legal method, argumentation and discourse etc, which limit the possibilities of 'objectivity' in law and in legal reasoning. The authors of this book reveal some of these underlying notions and discuss their consequences for legal theory.

Auteur

Jaakko Husa is Professor of Legal Culture and Legal Linguistics at the University of Lapland.
Mark Van Hoecke is Research Professor of Legal Theory and Comparative Law at the University of Ghent.

Contenu

I. Introduction

1. Objectivity in Law and Jurisprudence
   Mark Van Hoecke
   II. Objectivity of Legal Theory
2. Can Legal Theory Be Objective?
   Jaap Hage
3. The Impossibility of an Outsider's Perspective
   Pauline C Westerman
   III. Legal Reasoning
4. Objective Legal Reasoning-Objectivity Without Objects
   Matti Ilmari Niemi
5. Legal Certainty as an Element of Objectivity in Law
   Juha Raitio
6. Objective Rules of Argumentation
   Bertjan Wolthuis
7. Easy Cases and Objective Interpretation
   Niko Soininen
   IV. Human Behaviour and its Objective Foundation
8. Can Inalienable Rights Provide an Objective Foundation for Law and Morality?
   Maija Aalto-Heinilä
9. Objectivity and the Law's Assumptions about Human Behaviour
   Péter Cserne
   V. (Legal) Cultures
10. Kaleidoscopic Cultural Views and Legal Theory-Dethroning the Objectivity?
    Jaakko Husa
11. Translators and Legal Comparatists as Objective Mediators between Cultures?
    Caroline Laske
12. Legal Science Challenged by Cultural Paradigms: 'Subjective Objectivity' in Legal Scholarship
    Mustapha El Karouni