RESOLVING HARD CASES AND AMERICAN LEGAL REALISM
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52340/jo.2024.06.07.03Keywords:
Hard Cases, Legal Realism, Legal Ambiguity, Social Reality, Judicial Self-RestraintAbstract
Law’s inherent ambiguity and indeterminacy generate complex cases that require balancing legal values with empirical evidence. Legal realism expands law’s formal boundaries through creative interpretation that aligns with contemporary reality. While acknowledging written norms, this approach recognizes that law fundamentally governs human relationships and should not prioritize positive law over human welfare.
Given law’s social control function, it must reflect current social realities. Legal realist methodology incorporates empirical data and contemporary practices specific to the decision’s temporal and spatial context. In resolving hard cases, judges can supplement positive law and precedent with interdisciplinary insights, particularly from behavioral sciences. This integration of psychological, sociological, and economic research becomes especially crucial in cases involving discrimination or minors.
The Georgian legal system increasingly recognizes the necessity of such non-traditional approaches, as demonstrated by the growing incorporation of interdisciplinary scientific findings in judicial reasoning.
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