Abstract themes
The pure theory of law answers the question of what the law is, not what it ought to be. The latter question is one of politics, while the pure theory of law is science. (Hans Kelsen 1941)
Legal scholarship has a long tradition of debating whether the study of the law is an art or a science. And an equally long (and proud) tradition of claiming to be the only one(s) actually studying the law while everybody else is engaged in politics, wishful thinking or merely spouting ‘nonsense upon stilts’. Positivist and natural law scholars have disagreed profoundly, as have positivists and realists.
In recent decades this debate has intensified anew with the so-called empirical turn in legal scholarship which has been accompanied by the vicious questioning of the methodological soundness of much doctrinal work and vice-versa a fierce defence of legal scholarship against infiltration from other disciplines. Is the legal field finally being subjected to the same requirements of objectivity and scientific rigour as other disciplines? Or is the empirical turn fundamentally misunderstanding what legal scholarship is about?
In this call we invite scholars to reflect on the epistemological foundations of this methodenstreit by delivering presentations on the most foundational questions concerning the study of law, including but not limited to:
- How do we know what is true in the field of law?
- Is the study of the law a science?
- What are the epistemological foundations for doctrinal scholarship?
- Is legal scholarship empirical/normative – should it be?
- What might be the epistemological meaning of the ‘argumentative quality’ of law?
- Is there such a thing as a neutral point for observation of the law?
- What is the relationship between the ‘empirical’ quality of scholarship and the choice of methodologies (quantitative, qualitative, doctrinal)?
- Are doctrinal studies of caselaw a type of sampling? Ought they to be treated as such?
Practicalities
Participants are welcome to deliver either abstracts of up to 1000 words or short papers of up to 5000 words. We are envisioning further development of the abstracts into short papers with a view to publication of the better papers after the workshop. We welcome papers and presentations from scholars at any career level whose substantive work focuses on any field of law.
Please send your abstracts/papers to [email protected] by 5 June 2022. Please indicate whether you will be able to take part in person or online.
It will be possible to warm up for the event the day before the workshop, 13 June, when Jakob v. H. Holtermann and Martin Lolle Christensen from the iCourts Center of Excellence at Copenhagen University will present their project TEMPTATION on the empirical turn in international law scholarship.
Register here for the event.