Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Legal Philosophy
Legal Philosophy
The FUNCTIONAL SCHOOL OF LAW developed in the United States. It focuses on the question: "Will this law work?" Law is one of experience. It is also called the "THEORY OF SOCIOLOGICAL JURISPRUDENCE", "SOCIOLOGY OF LAW," OR "SOCIAL SCIENCE SCHOOL OF LAW." It focuses on the "operation and effects" of law in relation to the interests of society. The "interests of society", not the folk-soul or the pressures from the powerful elite, is the source of law. Montesquieu wrote that law is an evolutionary process. Law is a tool for the "balancing of interests" in society. It is a tool of "social control" or "social engineering." In a sense, it adheres to the tenets of "pragmatic ethics" or "ethical relativism" as it aims to serve the interests of society with the least friction.
It adheres to, and is actually a type of, "legal positivism" and "legal realism."
The main factors that define the law are expediency and the convenience of society.
THE GREATEST GOOD FOR THE GREATEST NUMBER, OR "SOCIAL UTILITARIANISM," IS THE MAIN GUIDEPOST OF THE FUNCTIONAL SCHOOL. LAW IS PRAGMATIC AND DYNAMIC.
SECOND, it is not in touch with pragmatic ethics, that is to say the social interest as the highest good in the legal ordering of a politically organized society.