THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY, JURISPRUDENCE, AND LAW

Abstract

This paper examined the relationship between Philosophy, Jurisprudence, and Law. It emanates as a result of the question mostly asked by students. The question is: of what relevance is the subject-matter of jurisprudence to law? The paper, therefore, is an attempt to illuminates the minds of scholars, and an attempt to launch a pragmatic grand attempt in examining the relationship between philosophy and law in the important topic of jurisprudence profoundly referred to as ‘the philosophy of law. The paper illuminates the historical connection between philosophy and law through the works of Greek philosophers and established that the wisdom distilled from these philosopher’s work forms the breastplate on which jurisprudence flourished to become the wisdom behind the court’s decision. As per the scope of the paper, it engaged in a thorough analysis of the rules of legal analysis, mostly philosophical that the court alludes to in arriving at its desirable conclusions. The paper explores the works of great writers and philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Russell, Wittgenstein. Hart, Dworkin, Huhn, Greg, and other legal theorists. Buttresses the fact that the connection between philosophy and law is inseverable and hence the importance of the study of jurisprudence as a pragmatic stride to establish a permanent nexus between philosophy and law and a never to be separated link between jurisprudence and law. The aim has been to establish the inseparable link between the court adventurism mind, the wisdom inherent in the decisions of the courts using the legendary Lord Denning’s pronouncements on the principle of Promissory Estoppel and the Re- Vandervells Will as most timeless in their relevance illuminating testaments. In essence, this paper examined some jurisprudential theories or schools, the views of some prominent Philosophers, the writings of some legal theorists, some rules of logic, and legal reasoning to establish the fact that the nexus between philosophy and law is inseverable. The paper pragmatically examined the practical links between philosophy and law using thejudgment of the indomitable Lord Denning to explicate the similarities between the work of the lawyer and philosopher in their academically articulate navigation from formalism through analogy to realism comparing Dennings’ mind to the philosophic mind of Rene Descartes within the method of ‘Cartesian Doubt.