Empirical Gap in Jurisprudence

Empirical Gap in Jurisprudence PDF

Author: Daved Muttart

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2007-02-17

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 1487591802

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In jurisprudential writing, single decisions are often held up as representative without any evidence to support their representative claims. In order to address this problem, Daved Muttart has made a systematic study encompassing every judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada between 1950 and 2003. Examining almost 5000 cases, Muttart analyses these Supreme Court decisions employing several important criteria including whether the decisions overruled prior precedent, the extent to which they were decided on fact, law, or policy, and the legal and extra-legal modes of reasoning utilized by the Court. Muttart uses the results of this systematic examination to test the validity of extant jurisprudential theories. Ultimately, he concludes that the Court's method of operation is evolving as it moves into a new century. While the court's reasoning is becoming less foundational, it remains a predominantly legal, as opposed to political, institution. Filling an important niche in the study of jurisprudence, The Empirical Gap in Jurisprudence demonstrates that systematic studies based on large samples of cases will yield many insights that were obfuscated by prior efforts that relied on small and self-selected samples.

The Empirical Gap in Jurisprudence

The Empirical Gap in Jurisprudence PDF

Author: Daved Muttart

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2007-01-01

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 0802091598

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Daved Muttart has made a systematic study encompassing every judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada between 1950 and 2003. Muttart uses the results of this systematic examination to test the validity of extant jurisprudential theories.

Empirical Legal Research

Empirical Legal Research PDF

Author: Frans L. Leeuw

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2016-03-25

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1782549412

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Empirical Legal Research describes how to investigate the roles of legislation, regulation, legal policies and other legal arrangements at play in society. It is invaluable as a guide to legal scholars, practitioners and students on how to do empirical legal research, covering history, methods, evidence, growth of knowledge and links with normativity. This multidisciplinary approach combines insights and approaches from different social sciences, evaluation studies, Big Data analytics and empirically informed ethics. The authors present an overview of the roots of this blossoming interdisciplinary domain, going back to legal realism, the fields of law, economics and the social sciences, and also to civilology and evaluation studies. The book addresses not only data analysis and statistics, but also how to formulate adequate research problems, to use (and test) different types of theories (explanatory and intervention theories) and to apply new forms of literature research to the field of law such as the systematic, rapid and realist reviews and synthesis studies. The choice and architecture of research designs, the collection of data, including Big Data, and how to analyze and visualize data are also covered. The book discusses the tensions between the normative character of law and legal issues and the descriptive and causal character of empirical legal research, and suggests ways to help handle this seeming disconnect. This comprehensive guide is vital reading for law practitioners as well as for students and researchers dealing with regulation, legislation and other legal arrangements.

Making Law and Courts Research Relevant

Making Law and Courts Research Relevant PDF

Author: Brandon L. Bartels

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781315777436

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

One of the more enduring topics of concern for empirically-oriented scholars of law and courts--and political scientists more generally--is how research can be more directly relevant to broader audiences outside of academia. A significant part of this issue goes back to a seeming disconnect between empirical and normative scholars of law and courts that has increased in recent years. Brandon L. Bartels and Chris W. Bonneau argue that being attuned to the normative implications of one's work enhances the quality of empirical work, not to mention makes it substantially more interesting to both academics and non-academic practitioners. Their book's mission is to examine how the normative implications of empirical work in law and courts can be more visible and relevant to audiences beyond academia. Written by scholars of political science, law, and sociology, the chapters in the volume offer ideas on a methodology for communicating normative implications in a balanced, nuanced, and modest manner. The contributors argue that if empirical work is strongly suggestive of certain policy or institutional changes, scholars should make those implications known so that information can be diffused. The volume consists of four sections that respectively address the general enterprise of developing normative implications of empirical research, law and decisionmaking, judicial selection, and courts in the broader political and societal context. This volume represents the start of a conversation on the topic of how the normative implications of empirical research in law and courts can be made more visible. This book will primarily interest scholars of law and courts, as well as students of judicial politics. Other subfields of political science engaging in empirical research will also find the suggestions made in the book relevant.

Intolerant Religion in a Tolerant-Liberal Democracy

Intolerant Religion in a Tolerant-Liberal Democracy PDF

Author: Yossi Nehushtan

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2016-01-21

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 1782259511

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book aims to examine and critically analyse the role that religion has and should have in the public and legal sphere. The main purpose of the book is to explain why religion, on the whole, should not be tolerated in a tolerant-liberal democracy and to describe exactly how it should not be tolerated – mainly by addressing legal issues. The main arguments of the book are, first, that as a general rule illiberal intolerance should not be tolerated; secondly, that there are meaningful, unique links between religion and intolerance, and between holding religious beliefs and holding intolerant views (and ultimately acting upon these views); and thirdly, that the religiosity of a legal claim is normally a reason, although not necessarily a prevailing one, not to accept that claim.

A General Jurisprudence of Law and Society

A General Jurisprudence of Law and Society PDF

Author: Brian Z. Tamanaha

Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 9780199244676

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

A General Jurisprudence of Law and Society is a theoretical and sociological exploration of the relationship between law and society. Law is generally understood to be a mirror of society - a reflection of its customs and morals - that functions to maintain social order. Focusing on this common understanding, the book conducts a survey of Western legal and social theories about law and its relationship within society. It then engages in a theoretical and empirical critique of this common understanding. The theoretical critique exposes the mythical quality of the two most often repeated theories about the emergence of law, the evolutionary theory and the social contract theory. It also discusses a fundamental shift, resulting from Enlightenment ideas about reason and morality, in the theoretical understanding of the relationship between morality and law. The empirical critique covers various subjects, primarily including the impact of legal transplantation and globalization. Brian Z. Tamanaha then constructs an alternative universally applicable framework with which to understand the relationship between law and society. The core component to this framework is a non-essentialist approach to the concept of law, which provides a basis for understanding of the phenomenon of legal pluralism. Finally, the book articulates how this framework would operate in facilitating our ability to study, understand, and criticize the relationship between law andsociety in a variety of contexts around the world today. In addition to illuminating the relationship between law and society, a key aspect of the argument of this book is to construct an approach to law that integrates legal theory with sociological approaches to law.

Toward an Informal Account of Legal Interpretation

Toward an Informal Account of Legal Interpretation PDF

Author: Allan C. Hutchinson

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016-10-20

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 1316720985

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Toward an Informal Account of Legal Interpretation offers a viable account of law, judicial decision-making, and legal interpretation that is as fresh as it is familiar. The author expertly challenges the dominant mode of formalist theorizing and proposes an explanatory account of legal interpretation that can profitably be understood as an 'informal' intervention. Such an informal approach has no truck with either the claims of the formalists (i.e., that law is something separate from ideology) or those of the anti-formalists (i.e., that law is nothing other than ideological posturing). Hutchinson insists that, when understood properly, legal interpretation is an applied exercise in law-and-ideology; it is both constrained and unconstrained in equal measure. In developing this informalist account through a sustained application of the 'no vehicles in the park' rule, this book is wide-ranging in theoretical scope and substance, but also accessible and practical in style.

Routledge Handbook of Socio-Legal Theory and Methods

Routledge Handbook of Socio-Legal Theory and Methods PDF

Author: Naomi Creutzfeldt

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-08-13

Total Pages: 566

ISBN-13: 0429489749

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Drawing on a range of approaches from the social sciences and humanities, this handbook explores theoretical and empirical perspectives that address the articulation of law in society, and the social character of the rule of law. The vast field of socio-legal studies provides multiple lenses through which law can be considered. Rather than seeking to define the field of socio-legal studies, this book takes up the experiences of researchers within the field. First-hand accounts of socio-legal research projects allow the reader to engage with diverse theoretical and methodological approaches within this fluid interdisciplinary area. The book provides a rich resource for those interested in deepening their understanding of the variety of theories and methods available when law is studied in its broadest social context, as well as setting those within the history of the socio-legal movement. The chapters consider multiple disciplinary lenses – including feminism, anthropology and sociology – as well as a variety of methodologies, including: narrative, visual and spatial, psychological, economic and epidemiological approaches. Moreover, these are applied in a range of substantive contexts such as online hate speech, environmental law, biotechnology, research in post-conflict situations, race and LGBT+ lawyers. The handbook brings together younger contributors and some of the best-known names in the socio-legal field. It offers a fresh perspective on the past, present and future of sociolegal studies that will appeal to students and scholars with relevant interests in a range of subjects, including law, sociology and politics. Chapter 7 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Manitoba Law Journal: A Review of the Current Legal Landscape 2015 Volume 38(1)

Manitoba Law Journal: A Review of the Current Legal Landscape 2015 Volume 38(1) PDF

Author: Darcy L. MacPherson, et al.

Publisher: Manitoba Law Journal

Published:

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The Manitoba Law Journal is a peer-reviewed journal founded in 1961. The MLJ's current mission is to provide lively, independent and high caliber commentary on legal events in Manitoba or events of special interest to our community. This issue has articles from a variety of contributing authors including: Alvin Esau, Bryan P. Schwartz, Catherine Bell, Darcy L. MacPherson, Darren O'Toole, David Ireland, Joan Brockman, Joshua David Michael Shaw, Marc Zanoni, Michelle Gallant, Paul Seaman, Peter McCormick, Richard Devlin, and Thomas R. Berger.

Constitutional Crossroads

Constitutional Crossroads PDF

Author: Kate Puddister

Publisher: UBC Press

Published: 2022-12-01

Total Pages: 521

ISBN-13: 0774867949

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Four decades have passed since the adoption of the Constitution Act, 1982. Now it is time to assess its legacy. Constitutional Crossroads brings together an impressive assembly of established and rising stars of political science and law, who not only provide a robust account of the 1982 constitutional reform but also analyze the ensuing scholarship that has shaped our understanding of the Constitution. Contributors bypass historical description to offer reflective assessments of issues such as sovereignty, identity and pluralism, the scope and limits of rights, competing constitutional visions, the relationship between the state and Indigenous peoples, and the nature and methods of constitutional change.