The Law To Know

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Modern analytical and empirical

Scandinavian Legal Realism

Rights and duties are useful ways of speaking, with no hidden existence of their own.

1910s to 1960s · Sweden and Denmark. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.

Read this first. This is a first map of a large subject. Each school is a family of views, and its thinkers often disagree with one another, so every summary simplifies. We describe each school in terms its own followers would accept and give the strongest criticism beside it. Read the original works before you cite anyone, and check your own course's reading list. This is general information, not legal advice.

What is law?

Law is a set of social facts and psychological attitudes: people feel bound, and officials use rules to guide conduct. Talk of rights and duties helps coordinate behaviour but does not name mysterious entities.

Law and morality

Moral statements express feelings and attitudes rather than knowledge. Law should be studied empirically, as a social phenomenon.

Where does its authority come from?

Social facts and psychology: law works through the feeling of being bound.

How should judges decide?

Look at how rules work in society and how judges actually decide, and avoid metaphysical language.

The question it asks

What, in fact, does talk of 'rights' and 'duties' refer to?

Main criticism

Hart argued that it misdescribes the internal point of view of people who treat rules as reasons, not merely as feelings or threats.

Legacy today

A strong influence on empirical legal studies in northern Europe and on the analytic philosophy of law.

Key thinkers

Axel Hägerström, Vilhelm Lundstedt, Karl Olivecrona, Alf Ross.

Key works

  • Hägerström, Inquiries into the Nature of Law and Morals
  • Olivecrona, Law as Fact (1939)
  • Ross, On Law and Justice (1953, English 1958)

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Read further

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: philosophy of law (an overview). For the exact arguments, go to the original works above.

TheLawToKnow Tools’s guide to schools of legal thought is an educational overview. It is not legal advice. Report a mistake.