Law and Realism

Law and Realism offers multidisciplinary responses to the questions of the existence of law, of legal orders and legal norms. It provides the reader with comprehensive accounts of realism in the law and criticism on it. The volume broadens the traditional views of legal Realism by discussing the many aspects of reality that condition the existence of legal orders in general and the application of law in specific cases. It covers in particular the biological nature of human beings, the structure of language and reasoning, the fact of social morality, and the embeddedness of legal systems in a complex socio-cultural environment. The authors present defenses and criticism of diverse competing theories of legal realism and their shortcomings, because it is known that realism, as used in jurisprudence, leads to a kind of reductionism or incoherence with aspects of reality and of normativity that are equally essential for a complete understanding of the law. The book also aims at opening a realistic philosophical debate in order to rescue the original meaning of realism in regard to the nature of law.