Are Judges Liars? A Wittgensteinian Critique of Law’s Empire

Publication Date

7-1990

Journal

Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence

Abstract

When Legal Realism first appeared in American jurisprudential thought in the 1920’s and early 1930’s, it was frequently misunderstood as an attack on the integrity and truthfulness of the American judiciary. After all, wasn’t it a central tenet of Legal Realism that judges did not decide cases by applying preexisting and authoritative legal rules, but merely decided cases in whichever way they thought was best? Such considerations led to the derogatory restatement of the Realist position as holding that the law is determined by “whatever the judge ate for breakfast”.

Volume

3

Issue

2

First Page

123

Last Page

138

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0841820900001193

Disciplines

Jurisprudence | Law | Legal Remedies

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