About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

4 Liverpool L. Rev. 5 (1982)

handle is hein.journals/lvplr4 and id is 1 raw text is: Phenomenology and Jurisprudence

PHENOMENOLOGY AND JURISPRUDENCE*
David Schiff**
Introduction
Roscoe Pound considered that juristic phenomenology is a variant of American
legal realism, and one of a limited kind.' This approach and conclusion are
typical of the few Anglo-American jurisprudential writers who even consider
that there is such a potential classification as juristic phenomenology.' It is,
however, a view quite unrepresentative of the ideas of juristic phenomenology,
their discussion, criticism and development in continental jurisprudential
literature.3 For example, H. J. van Eikema Hommes4 includes a section on
Phenomenological Legal Theories, in which short accounts of the juristic
phenomenology of Adolf Reinach, Fritz Schreier, Felix Kaufman and Paul
Amselek are given. Probably the most developed analyses in English of juristic
phenomenology can be found in articles by Amselek, Friedmann, and Franklin
in Phenomenology and the Social Sciences.'
There has been a widespread influence of phenomenology on jurisprudence in
Germany, France and Latin-America within the present century. The German
developments are either representative of the direct influence of Edrmund
Husserl's pure phenomenology,' or have been attempts to reinterpret Kelsenian
jurisprudence in terms of phenomenological insight or method.' Juristic
phenomenology in France is of recent significance representing the same
influences as in Germany' but in addition, specific attempts to reconcile or
* This article was originally presented as a paper at a conference in April 1981 on Critical Legal
Studies, organised by the Law Faculty of the University of Kent.
** Lecturer in Law, London School of Economics.
1 Jurisprudence, Minnesota, West Publishing Co., 1959, Vol. 1, 282-283.
2 With the main exception of W. Friedmann, Legal Theory, London, Stevens, 1967.
3 This position within jurisprudence can be seen in the more general context of different
philosophic traditions: see H. Spiegelberg, The Phenomenological Movement: A Historical
Introduction, The Hague, Nijhoff, 1960, vol. II, ch.XIII, esp. 647-650.
4 Modern Trends in the History of Legal Philosophy, Amsterdam, North-Holland Publishing
Co., 1979, 260-265.
5  See Phenomenology and Legal Theory in Phenomenology and the Social Sciences (ed. M.
Natanson), Evanston, Northwestern University Press, 1973, vol. 2, part VIll.
6 Adolf Reinach, Zur Phanomenologie des Rechts, Munchen, Kisel-Verlag, 1953, originally
published as Die apriorischen Grundlagen des bargerlichen Rechts, 1913; Gerhart Husserl,
Recht und Welt: Rechtsphilosophische Abhandlungen, Frankfurt, V. Klostermann, 1964, and
see Phanomenologie, Rechtsphilosophie, Jurisprudenz: Festchrift far Gerhart Husserl,
Frankfurt, V. Klostermann, 1969.
7 Particularly Felix Kaufmann, Die Kriterion des Rechts, Tobingen, Mohr, 1925; Fritz Schreier,
Grundbegriffe und Grundformen des Rechts, Leipzig, F. Deuticke, 1924; See A. S. de
Bustamante y Montoro, Kelsenism, in Interpretations of Modern Legal Philosophies Essays
in honour of Roscoe Pound (ed. P. Sayre), New York, Oxford University Press, 1947, 43-51.
8 Especially Paul Amselek, Methode Phdnomenologique et Theorie du Droit, Paris, L.G.D.J.,
1964; Jean-Louis Gardies, La philosophie du droit d'Adolf Reinach, X Archives'de
philosophie du droit (1965), 17; Georges Kalinowski, La logique des normes d'Edmund
Husserl, X Archives de philosophie du.droit (1965), 107; Simone Goyard, Essai de Critique
Phenomenologique de Droit (Thesis, Paris, 1971); and, of course, within the sociology of law,
G. D. Gurvitch, Sociology of Law, London, Routledge, 1947.

5

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most