Objectivity in Law and Legal Reasoning

Legal theorists consider their discipline as an objective endeavor in line with other fields of science. Objectivity in science is generally regarded as a fundamental condition, informing how science should be practiced 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 21st 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. Written by experts in the field of legal theory, the book reveals some of these underlying notions and discusses their consequences for legal theory. (Series: European Academy of Legal Theory )

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.