Abstract
In this chapter the structure of the whole work is presented. The work is based on a fundamental idea: law and the juridical handling of the law (i.e., juridical thinking about the law) are two different things. Hence, in legal philosophy it is vital to differentiate between concepts with a law-stating function of law (concepts of law, L-concepts for short) and concepts with a juridical-operative function (concepts about law, juridical concepts, J-concepts for short). The book is devoted to the analysis of J-concepts, especially of technical (not ideological or evaluative) J-concepts. Four kinds of J-concepts are investigated: morphological J-concepts, those that help us to structure the law in a logical and functional way; topological J-concepts, those that help us to indicate the phenomena to which the law is applicable, and to separate the areas of application for different legal systems; praxeological J-concepts, those that help us to explore the relations between law and action, and methodological J-concepts, those that help us to describe the methods of the professional-juridical handling of the law. The work can be characterised as presenting a lawyer’s philosophy of law. In their handling of the law lawyers play different roles, the most important of them presented here. The chapter also includes a presentation of different juridical modes of thinking and an investigation of the nature of legal doctrines. Finally, it is argued that the concept “legal order” is the most fundamental of juridical concepts.
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Notes
- 1.
According to Roman tradition, a decisive step towards the secularisation of Roman law was taken in 304 BCE, when the monopoly of legal knowledge held by the guardians of the ancestral, religious tradition – the pontiffs – was broken up. Thereafter an increasing number of secular jurists (jurisprudentes or jurisconsulti), emanating from the Roman aristocracy, took over as masters of the law. Mousourakis (2015), p. 55 f.
- 2.
De legibus 1.12.33. Quoted from Kelly (1992), p. 69.
- 3.
More about my view on clarification in Frändberg (2014), pp. 25–30.
- 4.
“It may indeed be that the mere interpretation of positive rules of law in the way traditionally practised by lawyers does not deserve to be called a science at all, whether intellectual or social. Perhaps legal studies only become truly scientific when they rise above the actual rules of any national system, as happens in legal philosophy, legal history, the sociology of law and comparative law”. Zweigert and Kötz (1987), p. 4.
- 5.
This distinction is more thoroughly elaborated in Frändberg (2009), pp. 1–16.
- 6.
The modern classic in the field is von Wright (1963a).
- 7.
See von Wright (1968), p. 12 f.
- 8.
Cf. Frändberg (2014), Subsection 4.2.
- 9.
Frändberg (2014).
- 10.
Frändberg (2014), Chapter 4.
- 11.
For this short survey I have profited from Forssell (1976), Chapter 3. Unfortunately this work is only available in Swedish.
- 12.
- 13.
- 14.
Hempel (1952), pp. 1 f.
- 15.
See von Wright (1963b), pp. 4–6.
- 16.
Frändberg (2014), Subsection 3.2.1.
- 17.
Naess (1966), pp. 34 ff.
- 18.
Naess (1966), p. 53.
- 19.
Investigated in my book Frändberg (2014).
- 20.
Frändberg (2014), pp. 161 f.
- 21.
Somló distinguishes between the content of the law and its form, and makes corresponding distinctions between Rechtsinhaltswissenschaften (= mainly legal dogmatics) and die Wissenschaft von der Rechtsform (= die Juristische Grundlehre), and between Rechtsinhaltsbegriffe and Juristische Grundbegriffe. Concerning the latter he says, referring to Austin and Bierling, that they are “jene, deren sich jedermann zum Ausdruck einer Rechtsnorm notwendigerweise bedienen muss oder die er dabei notwendigerweise voraussetzt”. I, for my part, do not assume such a necessity with respect to J-concepts. Somló (1917).
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Frändberg, Å. (2018). Introduction. In: The Legal Order. Law and Philosophy Library, vol 123. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78858-6_1
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