A New Introduction to Legal Method

A New Introduction to Legal Method provides a comprehensive overview of legal science and the scientific character of legal knowledge.

In five chapters, the book analyses and explores: (i) legal methodology in general, the main features of different schools of thought, and the nature of science in general; (ii) American realism, which offers an ideal starting point for law students to reflect on the material they are about to study critically; (iii) rationalism, empiricism, and logical positivism, in particular the work of Karl Popper; (iv) criticisms of essentialism; (v) the ideological and philosophical background of contemporary liberal interpretation. The inclusion of Dutch, French, and German literature sources makes this law title differ from previous writings on legal science.

This textbook is ideal for students of legal method, and will be of great interest to those studying legal science, jurisprudence, legal research,and legal skills.

Paul Cliteur is Professor of Jurisprudence at Leiden University, the Netherlands. He is the author of The Secular Outlook (2010), Populist and Islamist Challenges for International Law (2019, together with Amos N. Guiora), and Theoterrorism v. Freedom of Speech (2019).

Afshin Ellian is Professor of Jurisprudence at Leiden University, the Netherlands. He edited The State of Exception and Militant Democracy in a Time of Terror (2012) and Counterterrorism after the IS-Caliphate (2020), and The Open Society and Its Closed Communities (2021, together with Paul Cliteur).