Jurisprudence as Normative Science

Introduction: Defining the Problem

Before defining what exactly jurisprudence as a normative science means it is necessary to clarify how the term “jurisprudence” will be understood in this entry. For reasons of space, we shall limit ourselves here to analyzing the concept of jurisprudence exclusively from the traditional viewpoint of Continental legal culture – where “jurisprudence” basically amounts to a general theory of positive law, to wit, of legal norms and legal orders (in this context we shall not consider the relationship among jurisprudence, sociology of law, and legal dogmatics) – and not according to the more sociological and pragmatic standpoint of the Anglo-American, Common Law legal culture. Nonetheless, there is an Anglophone approach to philosophy of law, to which only a brief reference will be made, represented by analytical jurisprudence, which engages in a conceptual analysis of the concept of law in the search for a general theory of law and corresponds, so far as...