Current Research

  Scientia Juris. A volume in Kluwer Treaties in Philosophy of Law

Appears May 2005.

  Justice in Legislation and Justice in Adjudication

  IVR Encyclopaedia of Jurisprudence, Legal Theory and Philosophy of Law

The project shall reflect the needs of legal science in our complex and changing society. It should contribute to assure identity of legal theory between ordinary legal scholarship and philosophy. For example, a legal scholar who writes about statutory interpretation often makes philosophical assumptions about argumentation in general, about the nature of law, about legitimacy and so on. His knowledge about such things is often fragmentary and outdated. He needs a summary giving him links to such subjects and showing that they may be philosophically controversial. On the other hand, the doctrinal scholar may enlighten the legal philosopher in terms of the legal dictates which constrain argument.

The Encyclopaedia will have the following special characteristics.

  1. It will consist of very brief entries, about 2500 words each, showing links of juristic method to controversial philosophical assumptions.
  2. We should try to open each entry in the way making it comprehensible for an “ordinary” legal scholar why legal philosophy is inevitable. Legal scholars need to be shown that they are already always doing legal philosophy, cannot escape doing it professionally, and have only the choice to do it badly, or well.
  3. The emphasis will be on philosophical controversies important for legal scholars and linked to other philosophical controversies. Philosophy is essentially controversial, yet inevitable for a legal scholar who wishes to think in a profound manner. Thus, we should conclude each entry with a list of philosophical controversies the subject provokes.
  4. Yet, we will try to reveal the common ground behind controversies. This may be possible, if the plethora of disputed positions which in fact litter our jurisprudential landscape are truly laid out in the comprehensive manner proper to an encyclopaedia, together with sufficient grounds so as to render each with enough of the plausibility it has among its proponents in fact.
  5. The main idea is to make interconnections between different problems more accessible than they are now.
  6. The most important way to provide interconnections is to write short summary articles - a "micropedia".
  7. Another trademark of the encyclopaedia is flexibility. The list of entries will be continually updated. The systematization of entries will also evolve in time. No attempt has been made to impose upon the entries a single theoretical underpinning of systematization.
  8. The authors of entries are encouraged to update their contributions whenever they wish.