Redefining Normative Legal Science: Towards an Argumentative Discipline

METHODS OF HUMAN RIGHTS RESEARCH, F. Coomans, F. Grünfeld, M. Kamminga, eds., Antwerp-Oxford, 2009, 45-58

TICOM Working Paper No. 2009/7

14 Pages Posted: 30 May 2009 Last revised: 19 Oct 2009

See all articles by Jan M. Smits

Jan M. Smits

Maastricht University Faculty of Law

Date Written: 2009

Abstract

Academic legal scholarship increasingly relies on non-normative perspectives. This raises the question what is actually the core of academic legal scholarship and what methodology legal academics should adopt. In this contribution, it is argued that the focus in the present debate should not be on how other disciplines than the law can help us to make the academic study of law more 'scholarly.' Instead, the question should be how the legal approach itself can better match the expectations one has about a truly scholarly discipline of law. To this end, the purpose of normative legal scholarship is redefined.

Keywords: Legal science, Methodology, Normative approach

Suggested Citation

Smits, Jan M., Redefining Normative Legal Science: Towards an Argumentative Discipline (2009). METHODS OF HUMAN RIGHTS RESEARCH, F. Coomans, F. Grünfeld, M. Kamminga, eds., Antwerp-Oxford, 2009, 45-58, TICOM Working Paper No. 2009/7, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1411716

Jan M. Smits (Contact Author)

Maastricht University Faculty of Law ( email )

P.O. Box 616
Maastricht, NL-6200 MD
Netherlands

HOME PAGE: http://www.jansmits.eu

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