Jurisprudence

The law or jurisprudence (from the Latin iuris prudentia ) deals with the design, the systematic and conceptual penetration of current and historical legal texts and other legal sources. A proper interpretation of legal texts includes a scientific study of the origin and use of sources of law and norms. Fundamental to this work is an understanding of the history of law, philosophy of law, legal theory, legal policy and sociology of law. The aforementioned disciplines are called together with the legal doctrine and teaching methods in the plural as law.

A classic definition of what is law, the Roman jurist Ulpian are: Jurisprudence is the knowledge of divine and human things, the science of the just and the unjust. " Iuris prudentia est atque divinarum humanarum rerum notitia, iusti atque iniusti scientia " ( Domitius Ulpian: Ulpian primo libro reg, Digest 1,1,10,2. ). The " Divine " within the meaning of canon law has been permanently removed while still at German universities until well after the Enlightenment, but in the present as a compulsory subject from the jurisprudential curricula.

In Germany there is still the plural term Jura (Latin for " the rights " ), the singular form or the Latin jus jus instead, is more in Austria and Switzerland.

In addition to the secular law and its jurisprudence, there are religion-based law. The Christian right is in the German language area often referred to as canon law. The right of the Catholic Church 's canon law. With the law of Islam ( Sharī ʿ a) deals with the Islamic jurisprudence ( fiqh ). In addition to theology, medicine and philosophy, jurisprudence is a classical university disciplines.

Theoretical classification of jurisprudence

The law is a hermeneutic discipline. The recovered by the philosophy of hermeneutics knowledge about the conditions of possibility of understanding meaning they apply as a legal method to the exegesis of legal texts. Your special position compared with the other humanities directs, to the extent it deals with the law, from the general applicability of legal texts from which it has applied in relation to specific life issues in the case law. From this perspective can the law ideally understood as research models for the prevention and solution of societal and interpersonal conflicts.

The hermeneutic method distinguishes the other hand, of the empirical sciences, such as natural science, medicine, economic and social sciences, whose goal is not the understanding of texts, but the exploration of natural or social regularities, which are verifiable by experience and observation. The law does not deal as the other text Sciences ( Philology, Theology) with objective findings on sensual experience symptoms. This remains sub-branches of law reserved, such as the philosophy of law, sociology of law and criminology.

Disciplines

Those aspects of the law can be summarized to the exegetical subjects and the non- exegetical subjects (historical, philosophical or empirical subjects). In the exegetical subjects, the legal doctrine stands in the foreground. In the exegetical non- dogmatic subjects in particular the Digest exegesis and exegesis are operated German legal sources. Rarely, for example, cuneiform legal sources (Codex Hammurabi ) are designed.

The nichtexegetischen legal foundation subjects are often at the same time disciplines of allied disciplines, such as philosophy of law, legal history and the sociology of law.

More recently, the law has a lot with the legal methodology and the theory of statutory interpretation. Because of the legal exegesis is a legal methodology of importance, it is often taught separately.

In particular, the philosophy of law in the law and in legal studies, compared to the high Middle Ages and Renaissance, lost much of its importance. The criminology, which deals among other things with empirical research, has at universities also have a low priority.

An overview of the main areas of law contained in the article right.

History and Function of Law

While the right story deals with the historical development of the law itself, can also examine how science has developed from the law in the course of history.

The question of what is right has been answered in different ways again and again over the centuries. Initially law was equated with the prevailing morality ( see also natural law ). Later, the idea dominated, as law can only be understood a rule that a corporation or person (usually the " ruler " ) was adopted, which had the authority to issue and enforce their ( legal positivism ). The historical school of law emphasized in contrast to the beginning of the 19th century the social and historical anchoring of the law. For these and other ideas to today's common law systems have evolved.

Here are again two main types of legal systems to distinguish, namely codified, abstractly defined law, and the case law ( common law ).

The codified law has essentially developed from Roman law. So it was the Emperor Justinian, who compiled the Roman law in the Corpus Iuris Civilis first and thus also unified throughout the Roman Empire. Even if the statute law earlier decisions are taken into account, in fact always has the Code and the legal text - if necessary, customary law - the highest authority. The important area of ​​civil law was revised by Napoleon and the Civil newly codified in the Code. This is since in the French-speaking world, the former French colonies and other countries spread. Adjacent is the German legal tradition, which has been found on the floor of the common law in the codification of the Civil Code expression and also aired in Germany and beyond.

In contrast, the development of the English legal tradition of common law. The law is not codified here in principle, but will be further developed by the courts on the basis of precedents. This legal system has also been adopted in the U.S. and other former British colonies and developed. So there are in the United States is a school of legal realism, according to which alone is the right thing to use the courts as a law and will be enforced. Another special feature of the U.S. law is the importance of jury trials (see Jury).

Instead, the law has, for example, in Germany an independent function in relation to jurisdiction. The jurisprudential literature is an ( effective and recognized ) " legal education factor " (at least in labor ). This can also be derived from the words of the Federal Constitutional Court that " [ t] he courts [ ... ] in case of inadequate legal requirements derive the substantive law with the accepted methods of legal findings from the general legal principles [ must ] that are relevant for the particular legal relationship ," be closed.

Studies and legal education

A key component of legal education is in many jurisdictions the study of law at a university.

In Austria and Switzerland, the jurisprudential studies " Jus " is specified, as the canon law is not mandatory content of the course more.

The term " law " means the science of law (secular or ecclesiastical ). Law, however, means the science or the study of both laws; of canon and secular law. The commonly used in Germany term " law " for the study of " law " is misleading. Jura comes from the Latin iura, the plural of ius. So here again the distinction between one or both laws. Thus would " law " in Germany - as in Austria and Switzerland properly be called " Jus " and the law, including the canon law as a law, whereby this theory does not correspond to reality, since " law " as a synonym for the wide-ranging matters - used - and regardless of the canon law.

Limits, deficits and principles of jurisprudence

If one understands the law as a science by applicable law, it focuses essentially on the interpretation of laws and jurisprudence derived from the laws and wants to turn it gain a knowledge of the applicable law. This finds its limits on the one in the set of legal norms and on the other the lack of knowledge of the actual effects of legal norms.

In a modern, highly complex system of government but there is no longer a manageable set of norms ( see also constitutional law, international law). In Germany there are more than 5,000 laws and regulations of the Federation, to which are added the laws and regulations of the 16 states and the ordinances and statutes of the districts, counties, administrative groups and communities, not to mention the not -to-quantify volume of management policies (such as for example, the Clean Air Act, the TA noise) and created committees and associations standards that also have de facto force of law ( such as VOB, DIN standards, the numerous guidelines and recommendations of the Federal Highway Research Institute ( Federal Highway Research Institute ) and the Research Society for Road and Transport Studies ( FSGV ) for road, LAGA, etc.). In addition, many of these standards regulate very specific and highly technical issues and are second only to specialists, but not of non-specialist lawyers or even by laymen to understand. On top of that a number of these standards apply to the professional technical specialists, the thought processes of a lawyer are foreign, which can lead to significant communication problems between the specialist and the lawyers. These standards are often not at all obvious contradictions or gaps, but this is often not discernible in the pure reading, but only in the practical application. In addition, there are standards that seem to contain a useful control, but in practice their aim largely miss and for significant negative effects unfold (eg public procurement law that barely prevents corruption, but has made the award considerably more expensive and time consuming!).

The law can the impact of legal norms in reality only through the point of view of government law to recognize since it operates as good as any actual legal research. But only a relatively tiny part of the everyday application of the law leads to disputes in court. Over a large part of the legally relevant human behavior is not disputed, even if the behavior does not match the legal theory. Another significant portion is settled out of court due to the economic or social power relations. Finally, there are large areas of the economy where deliberately kept away disputes by state courts and at best be decided by arbitration tribunals, which make neither their methods nor their decisions public. The study of the case law thus gives only a tiny part of the reality of the law. On top of that there are judgments that seem logical and correct and useful, but not reach the intended target in practice, but on the contrary legalize negative and not really worthy of protection behavior (such as strengthening the right to information by shareholders who hardly ever a single shareholder has helped, but it sure makes the decision to torpedo at general meetings with endless, often insubstantial questions ).

If we understand the applicable law is not only the sum of the norms that intend to regulate human behavior in a given area, but also their legal consequences, so the actual impact of these standards and the way how these standards understood by those affected and be applied, one must come to the conclusion that the law is able to detect only the surface of the applicable law and occasionally also draws false conclusions.