know that the Civil Code governs five forms of matrimonial property regime, but we have not the least suggestion in what numerical relation and in what geographical subdivisions the several forms occur now in social life[R. Pound, The Scope and Purpose of Sociological Jurisprudence. [Concluded.] III. Sociological Jurisprudence. Harvard Law Review Association, 25(6), 1912, 489-516)].
(ii) The second is sociological study in connection with legal study in preparation for legislation. The accepted scientific method has been to study other legislation analytically. Comparative legislation has been taken to be the best foundation for wise lawmaking. But it is not enough to compare the laws themselves. It is much more important to study their social
…show more content…
This has been neglected almost entirely in the past. We have studied the making of law sedulously. It seems to have been assumed that, when made, law will enforce itself. This is true not only of legislation but also of that more important part of our law which rests in the reports. Almost the entire energy of our judicial system is employed in working out a consistent, logical, and precise body of precedents. The important part of our system is not the trial judge who dispenses justice to litigants but the judge of the appellate court who uses the litigation as a means of developing the law; and we judge the system by the output of written opinions and not by the actual results interpretations in concrete causes. But the life of the law is in its enforcement. Serious scientific study of how to make our huge annual output of legislation and judicial interpretation effective is imperative[ Pound, R., 1907In D. A. Hedin (Ed.), Green Bag 19 ed, …show more content…
In other words, the study should not be limited to how doctrines have evolved and developed, considered solely as jural materials, but what social effects the doctrines of the law have produced in the past and how they have produced them[ R. Pound, 1912]. Accordingly, Kantorowicz calls for a legal history which shall not deal with rules and doctrines alienated from the economic and social history of their time, as if the causes of change in the law were always to be found in the legal phenomena of the past. A legal history that shall not try to show that the law of the past can give us an answer to every question, by systematic deduction, as if it were a system without hiatus and without antinomies[ R. Pound, 515]. Instead, it is to show us how the law of the past grew out of social, economic, and psychological conditions, how it accorded with or accommodated itself to them, and how far we can proceed upon that law as a basis, or in disregard of it, with well-grounded expectations of producing the results desired[ R. Pound,
The merits of both the adversarial and inquisitorial system will be explored throughout this paper. The Australian rule of law best describes as all law should be applied equally and fairly. The five vital operations of the rule of law includes fairness, rationality, predictability, consistency, and impartially. The adversarial system adopts these operations by having a jury decide on the verdict and the judge being an impartial decision maker. In contrast, the inquisitorial system relies heavily on the judge. This can result in abusive power and bias of the judge when hearing evidence and delivering verdicts. The operations of the rule of law determine why the rule of law is best served by the adversarial system in Australia.
Roberson, C., Wallace, H., & Stuckey, G. B. (2013). Procedures in the justice system (1st ed.). [Vitalsource or Kaplan University]. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781269223119/pages/76743177
of law that has been used to base his decision on. This is called the
This theory looks at how the sovereign and its officials created the law based on social norms and the institutions (Hart, 1958). However, hard cases such as this makes for bad law, which test the validity of the law at hand based on what the objective of the law was in the first place. The law should not be so easily dismissed just because it does not achieve justice in the most morally sound manner (Hart, 1958). Bentham and Austin understood that there are two errors in the way law is understood, what the law is and what the law should be (Hart, 1958). He knew that if law was to become what humans perceived the law ought to be, the law itself would be lost, but he also recognized that if the opposite was to occur where the law replaced morality, than any man would escape liability and there would be no retribution (Hart, 1958). This theory looks at the point of view of the dissenting judge, Justice Gray, which is that the law is what it is, even if it may conflict with morals. Austin stated that “The existence of law is one thing; its merit and demerit another. Whether it be or be not is one enquiry; whether it be or be not conformable to an assumed standard, is a different enquiry (Hart, 1958).” This case presents the same conflict that Bentham and Austin addressed, that the law based on the statute of the
In every society around the world, the law is affecting everyone since it shapes the behavior and sense of right and wrong for every citizen in society. Laws are meant to control a society’s behavior by outlining the accepted forms of conduct. The law is designed as a neutral aspect existent to solve society’s problems, a system specially designed to provide people with peace and order. The legal system runs more efficiently when people understand the laws they are intended to follow along with their legal rights and responsibilities.
The American court system came to be through the Judiciary Act of 1789 which was signed by President George Washington on September 24, 1789. The constitution had established the Supreme Court, but reserved the authority for Congress to create lower federal courts. This act set the structure and the jurisdiction of such courts and generated the position for Attorney General. The Act also organized the United States into circuits and districts, which formed thirteen district courts, one for each state. Before the modern era, the justice court system used different principles to punish criminals and solve disputes. During the American colonial times, religion was an important influence when the time for a verdict by the court came into play. They would use the principle of “Actus Reas”, meaning guilty act, and “Mens Rea”, meaning guilty mind. They believed that all men are sinners and therefore be punished as such. Sir William Blackstone established and influenced new, but similar, principles that were all biblical-origin and similar to the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Today, the court system is broken d...
“ ….Judgments, right or wrong. This concern with concepts such as finality, jurisdiction, and the balance of powers may sound technical, lawyerly, and highly abstract. But so is the criminal justice system….Law must provide simple answers: innocence or guilt, freedom or imprisonment, life or death.” (Baude, 21).
After analyzing the discourse community of law and the detailed process lawyers take in order to write an effective appeals brief, one can see that lawyers have a very specific and unique way of communicating that includes certain jargon unfamiliar and possibly incomprehensible to the general public. Although writing an appeal brief is only one aspect of many that government prosecuting attorneys such as Kenny Elser face in their jobs on a daily basis, it is also a very necessary job because not only is it used by a single discourse community in the law profession but utilized by the discourse community of law as a whole.
Introduction This submission will discuss the problems created by the Doctrine of Judicial Precedent and will attempt to find solutions to them. Whereas, English Law has formed over some 900 years it was not until the middle of the 19th Century that the modern Doctrine was ‘reaffirmed’. London Tramways Co. Ltd V London County Council (1898). Law is open to interpretation, all decisions made since the birth of the English Legal System, have had some form of impact whether it is beneficial or not The term ‘Judicial Precedent’ has at least two meanings, one of which is the process where Judges will follow the decisions of previously decided cases, the other is what is known as an ‘Original Precedent’ that is a case that creates and applies a new rule. Precedents are to be found in Law Reports and are divided up into ‘Binding’ and ‘Persuasive’.
In this essay I will be discussing how the formal theory of the rule of law is an erroneous means of establishing laws within a state. A central theme to addressing this is essay is the distinction between formal and substantive theories of the rule of law. In order to reach my conclusion of the formal theory being proven to be insufficient, one must first appreciate the significant advantages which the substantive theory obtains. However, before doing so, I will briefly mention the importance of the rule of law in society and the requirements it needs to fulfil.
Trial” is an exercise in the connections between law, literature, and the social function of
1.The strict supremacy of statute over judicial decisions and a tradition of literalism in statutory interpretation, 2. Where no legislation exists, the courts are bound by the doctrine of precedent in accordance with a strict hierarchy of judicial authority, 3. In the absence of a relevant precedent, the judges will be guided by legal principle and reasoning by analogy, and 4. There is clear way of distinguishing the ratio of a case…
The central aim of this essay will be to support the legal-positivist that law and morality are strictly separable. In its simplest form many understand legal positivism to be the existence and content of law, which depends on social facts, and not on its merits. I will engage closely with the work of John Austin and his concept of law, which offered a developed and progressive piece of work from Bentham, focusing on Austin’s The Province of Jurisprudence Determined (1832) in order to demonstrate one of the earlier accounts of legal positivism. By exploring Austin’s theory of sovereignty, in which he outlines that in every state there exists an authority to which a large mass of citizens show compliance, I will address the consideration that
However, there once existed or exists certain unjust laws around the world. A number of ancient laws were made specially to protect the interests of the upper class, such as the King, the Pope and the aristocrats. Besides, it is also hard to rule out the possibility of modern laws being unjust for several reasons. Firstly, injustice is sometimes unavoidable, since it is difficult for legislator to take every situation and every possible result into account. Secondly, justice is a concept with relativity that different individual may view the sam...
Martin, A. D., & Hazelton, M. W. (2012). What Political Science Can Contribute to the Study of Law. Review Of Law & Economics, 8(2), 511-529. doi:10.1515/1555-5879.158