Can Pragmatism Overcome the Impasse in Contemporary Legal Theory?
” Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, Volume XV, Number 1 (January 2002) pp. 85-98 Maricarmen Jenkins Department of Philosophy St. Thomas More College Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada In recent years, there has been a renewed interested in examining the nature of legal theory and finding ways to resolve impasses that may exist in contemporary legal theory. One suggestion made by some prominent philosophers of law (for example, Raz and Leiter) is the need to supplement arguments in legal theory with pragmatic considerations. By appealing to pragmatic considerations, it is thought that we can decide between competing conceptions of law. In this paper, I will examine how the appeal to pragmatism would work in the context of contemporary legal theory, and I will show why such an appeal to pragmatic considerations cannot solve the main problem that it was meant to solve. 6. “The Curious Case of Exclusionary Reasons”, Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, Volume XV, Number 1 (Janu
