Jurisprudence Legal Realism
Nature of Legal Realism
• family of theories about the nature of law developed in the 19thc in the US
• declined after WW II when natural law had a great comeback but even today, it
continues to have an influence on how we look at law
• core idea is that law is made by human beings and is therefore subject to human
foibles, frailties, and imperfections
• what law IS not ought to be
—> Influences
• critical legal studies
• feminist legal theory
• critical race theory
• law and economics school
• law and society school
• pragmatism
• jurimetrics and judicial behaviouralism
• originated in the 60s with the increased use of computers in law practice
• the term was popularized by the ABA Jurimetrics Journal of Law, Science,
and Tech
• term is used to mean a strictly empirical approach to the law
—> Emphasis on Real World Outcomes
• law is concerned and intrinsically tied to the real-world outcomes of particular
cases
• jurisprudence should therefore not be an abstract study of law
• there are less abstractions and hypothetical predictions
• requires more empirical reflections of fact
—> 5 movements
• there’s no one realist school, 5 various movements instead
1. law follows dominant social, economic, political powers in society
• Losee and Buchanan 1873: court held that a landowner’s right to enjoy
property could be modified by the needs of the social state
KMB 1 of 6
Nature of Legal Realism
• family of theories about the nature of law developed in the 19thc in the US
• declined after WW II when natural law had a great comeback but even today, it
continues to have an influence on how we look at law
• core idea is that law is made by human beings and is therefore subject to human
foibles, frailties, and imperfections
• what law IS not ought to be
—> Influences
• critical legal studies
• feminist legal theory
• critical race theory
• law and economics school
• law and society school
• pragmatism
• jurimetrics and judicial behaviouralism
• originated in the 60s with the increased use of computers in law practice
• the term was popularized by the ABA Jurimetrics Journal of Law, Science,
and Tech
• term is used to mean a strictly empirical approach to the law
—> Emphasis on Real World Outcomes
• law is concerned and intrinsically tied to the real-world outcomes of particular
cases
• jurisprudence should therefore not be an abstract study of law
• there are less abstractions and hypothetical predictions
• requires more empirical reflections of fact
—> 5 movements
• there’s no one realist school, 5 various movements instead
1. law follows dominant social, economic, political powers in society
• Losee and Buchanan 1873: court held that a landowner’s right to enjoy
property could be modified by the needs of the social state
KMB 1 of 6
