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Legisprudence

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Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy

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Introduction

What “legisprudence” is or where it belongs within the academic landscape can, of course, be disputed. Yet, in our view, legisprudence is best conceived of as a critical-normative discipline dealing with the rationality and justification of legislation; and we further hold that it should be a key chapter of a general theory of law. In brief, we define legisprudence as that branch of jurisprudence which is in charge of the theory of legislation. This article seeks to ground these claims by providing a short overview of major legisprudential insights and topics, as well as of their implications for the study of law. We start with some brief remarks on the meaning, roots, and development of legisprudence as a distinctive theoretical project. Against this backdrop we introduce the core concern of legisprudential thinking: the problem of – and the aspiration to – rational lawmaking, along with the overarching principles on which practical reason in legislation can thrive and leg...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Law, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

    A. Daniel Oliver-Lalana

  2. University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Luc J. Wintgens

Authors
  1. A. Daniel Oliver-Lalana
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  2. Luc J. Wintgens
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. Daniel Oliver-Lalana .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for International & Comparative Law, University of Baltimore School of Law, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Mortimer Sellers

  2. Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften, University of Salzburg, Austria, Salzburg, Austria

    Stephan Kirste

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Philosophy, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Patricia Mindus Ph.D

  2. Department of Philosophy, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Sebastian Andres Reyes Molina

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Oliver-Lalana, A.D., Wintgens, L.J. (2019). Legisprudence. In: Sellers, M., Kirste, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_81-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_81-1

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