Branches of Philosophy
Philosophy of Law
Also Known As Jurisprudence
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The branch of philosophy that asks what law is and how it functions as a normative institution, rather than addressing specific legal questions bound to one jurisdiction. Its foundational question, simply, is what is law, and it presupposes that law has identifiable characteristics that philosophical analysis can uncover. A central dispute divides legal positivists, who hold that legal validity depends on social facts alone, from natural law theorists, who hold that a norm's moral content partly determines whether it counts as law at all.
Facts
Central QuestionWhat is law, and what, if anything, is the relationship between law and morality? 1 Key DebateLegal positivism against natural law theory: whether the grounds of legality are exclusively social facts, such as legislation and custom, as positivists argue, or partly moral in nature, so that a sufficiently unjust rule fails to count as law at all, as natural law theorists argue. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that the claim that the moral content of norms partly determines their legality has been fiercely challenged by the legal positivism tradition. 1 Disputed
Key DebateWhether there is a moral duty to obey an unjust law: legal positivists such as H.L.A. Hart separate a law's validity from its morality and treat obedience as a further question, while natural law theorists hold that a sufficiently unjust rule fails to bind in conscience at all. 2 Debates over civil disobedience, from Thoreau through the twentieth century civil rights movement, kept this question live outside the seminar room as well as inside it. Cross-Tradition Connections
Sources
1. Law, Philosophy of: The Nature of Law (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyIntroductionQuote, Introduction
what is law?
1. Law, Philosophy of: The Nature of Law (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophySection 1.1Quote, Section 1.1
the claim that the moral content of norms partly determines their legality has been fiercely challenged by the legal positivism tradition
1. Law, Philosophy of: The Nature of Law (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyAssociated With: Hugo GrotiusView the Source 1. Law, Philosophy of: The Nature of Law (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyAssociated With: John RawlsView the Source 2. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and Informations.v. Legal PositivismView the Source Philosophy of Law (Wikipedia)
WikipediaDefinition and scopeQuote, Definition and scope
Jurisprudence, also known as legal theory or legal science, is the philosophy of law.
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