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Article
Jurisprudential Disagreements and Descriptivism
Comparative Research in Law & Political Economy
  • Dan Priel, Osgoode Hall Law School of York University
Research Paper Number
43/2013
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2013
Keywords
  • descriptive jurisprudence,
  • H.L.A. Hart,
  • Jurisprudence,
  • jurisprudential methodology,
  • Legal Positivism
Abstract

Many contemporary legal philosophers argue that general jurisprudence is “descriptive.” I challenge this view in this essay by focusing on one familiar aspect of jurisprudence: persistent disagreements among legal philosophers. I argue that this fact is in tension with the claim that jurisprudence is descriptive. I consider several possible reconciliations of jurisprudential disagreements with descriptivism, but I argue that none of them succeeds. I then argue that persistent jurisprudential disagreements are easy to explain from within a normative framework. I conclude by suggesting that legal philosophers abandon descriptivism in favor of a view that more explicitly sees legal philosophy as part of normative political philosophy.

Citation Information
Dan Priel. "Jurisprudential Disagreements and Descriptivism" (2013)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/dan_priel/17/