Abstract
This paper deals with the study of law as an academic discipline, in two ways. First, the study of law within the university does not speak for itself: in contrast with classical Athens, where law was not at all considered to be a matter for specialists, or Norman England, where specialists with a vocational training came to deal with the ‘common law’, in continental Europe at the end of the 11th century the study of law developed into one of the core academic disciplines at the newly established universities, as a result of the revival of the Byzantine version of Roman law as the ius commune. Second, as an academic study, contrary to what is sometimes suggested, the methods available to its students are diverse. This paper shows that law can be studied with the help of methods comparable to the ones used in other academic disciplines, notably the natural sciences and the humanities.
Highlights
The topic of this paper is the study of law as an academic discipline,[1] in two ways
As an academic discipline, the methods available to the students of law, if law is conceived in a broad sense, are diverse: in comparison with other academic disciplines, as these have developed over the last 2,500 years, law can be characterised as a topic that can be studied with the help of methods comparable to the ones used both in the natural sciences as well as in the humanities
According to Martha Nussbaum, justice needs to be related to human nature, where she reinterprets Aristotle’s function argument from the first book of his Nicomachean Ethics, at 1097a24-8a21, that happiness or the good life needs to be based on an account of the typical ‘function’ of human beings, which she turns into an argument about social justice, which is best served if a list of basic human ‘capabilities’ is observed.[56]. While this rapprochement may be clearest among those familiar with the common law tradition, even within the civil law tradition, among students in the field of private law, there are signs that Savigny’s project of bringing the system of the Byzantine version of Roman law to perfection is not that finished after all, and that this system of civil law needs to be studied in closer connection with its social or naturalist settings.[57]. These comparisons, brief as they are, can only offer some idea of how study of law as an academic discipline can be regarded as occupying a central position amidst the other academic disciplines
Summary
The topic of this paper is the study of law as an academic discipline,[1] in two ways. This paper contains a plea for a broader understanding of what the study of law can – perhaps even ought to – imply, in terms of the various methods available to it. It is addressed at those academic lawyers, who may not be accustomed to thinking about the study of law in terms of method, let alone in terms of the variety of methods that the study of law can involve In this broad understanding, the study of law can even contribute to the overall, all-round educational goal, which Wilhelm von Humboldt called Bildung.[4] This goal has been set in the university colleges, which have become popular in various countries, including the Netherlands, to which courses on law can by their very nature contribute perfectly.[5]. Snow referred to as the ‘two cultures’ within the university, that are the natural sciences and the humanities,[6] and will compare these with theories on object and method that go with the study of law
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