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Sociological Jurisprudence
Sociological Jurisprudence In a series of law review articles published between 1905 and 1923, Roscoe Pound of the Harvard Law School criticized the prevailing assumptions of what he called “mechanical jurisprudence.” He denied that just legal results would be produced by logical deductions from axiomatic premises about the laws of economics or the structure of society and pointed out that such axioms reflected more a judge's individual biases than they did universal truths. In this criticism, Pound echoed the skepticism of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, especially as expressed in his dissent in Lochner v. New York (1905).
In place of this discredited formalism that masked conservative political prejudices, Pound called for what he termed a “sociological jurisprudence.” Such a judicial outlook would recognize that law is not an autonomous collection of self‐contained and self‐referential rules. Instead, the judge would seek enlightenment from disciplines outside law, including the political and social sciences. Judges would become more sensitive to the actual impact of legal doctrine. They would strive for an equitable application of law to reach just results in particular cases. The “Brandeis brief,” introduced by Louis D. Brandeis in Muller v. Oregon (1908), exemplified the approach advocated by Pound. Sociological jurisprudence is often regarded as an early expression of the movement known as Legal Realism, but there were significant differences between the two. Realists like Karl Llewellyn, while acknowledging their debt to sociological jurisprudence, found themselves engaged in mutual criticism with Pound, who was skeptical of the premises of Realism. William M. Wiecek |
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KERMIT L. HALL. "Sociological Jurisprudence." The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. KERMIT L. HALL. "Sociological Jurisprudence." The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O184-SociologicalJurisprudence.html KERMIT L. HALL. "Sociological Jurisprudence." The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. 2005. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O184-SociologicalJurisprudence.html |
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sociological jurisprudence
sociological jurisprudence A term coined by the American jurist Roscoe Pound (1870–1964) to describe his approach to the understanding of the law. Central to Pound's conception was the very suggestive idea that in modern societies the law represents the principal means through which divergent interests are brought into some sort of alignment with one another. Unfortunately, perhaps because he was a jurist rather than a sociologist, he did not combine this insightful conception with a developed understanding of how these interests were formed and why some of them came to be privileged over others within the legal system. A sociologically informed account of Pound's work, which places it in the context of the historical development of the sociology of law, will be found in Alan Hunt , The Sociological Movement in Law, 1978
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GORDON MARSHALL. "sociological jurisprudence." A Dictionary of Sociology. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. GORDON MARSHALL. "sociological jurisprudence." A Dictionary of Sociology. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O88-sociologicaljurisprudence.html GORDON MARSHALL. "sociological jurisprudence." A Dictionary of Sociology. 1998. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O88-sociologicaljurisprudence.html |
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jurisprudence, sociological
jurisprudence, sociological See SOCIOLOGICAL JURISPRUDENCE.
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GORDON MARSHALL. "jurisprudence, sociological." A Dictionary of Sociology. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. GORDON MARSHALL. "jurisprudence, sociological." A Dictionary of Sociology. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O88-jurisprudencesociological.html GORDON MARSHALL. "jurisprudence, sociological." A Dictionary of Sociology. 1998. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O88-jurisprudencesociological.html |
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