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tionalAssociationforLegalandSocialPhilosophy(Internationale
VereinigungfürRechts-undSozialphilosophie-IVR),andthusby
therepresentativeofavarietyoflegalcultures,containsallthese
conceptswithinitsverytitle.
Inahistoricalsense,thetheoryoflawisarelativelyyoungbranch
ofscholarship,andinanycase,muchyoungerthanthephiloso-
phyoflaw,understoodasgeneralreectiononlaw.Theoriginsof
theoryoflawarelinkedtolegalpositivism,and,thus,totheend
ofthenineteenthandthebeginningofthetwentiethcentury.Its
prototypeisgenerallegalstudies,butonlytoadegree,sincecon-
temporarytheoryoflaw,ononehand,employsmodernresearch
methods,and,ontheotherhand,itoperateswithamodernpara-
digmofscholarship/science,onethatsubstantiallydińersfrom
asomewhatmechanicalandarchaicallgemeineRechtslehre.
Onepossible,andoneofthemostpopular,formulationsofthe
theoryoflawentailstherecognitionthatitconstitutesanop-
positiontoparticularlegaldoctrines.Moreprecisely,itis,within
legalresearch,atheoreticalanalysisandsynthesisconstructed
overthesedoctrines.Inthissense,thetheoryoflawisconcerned
withlawingeneral,andnot,forexample,withadministrative
law,civillaw,criminallaw,constitutionallaw,orinternational
law.Thesebodiesoflawconstituteatmostexemplificationsof
theoreticalthesesinrelationtoparticularissuesconcerning,for
example,thedrafting,application,interpretation,validity,and
observanceoflaw.Inthissense,asopposedtophilosophyof
law,theoryoflawhasnocriticalfunction,butratherananalytic
andsystematizingfunctionvis-à-visthelawasitis,andnotas
itshouldbefromthepointofviewofapositedidealofthelaw.
Atpresent,wecanseetheemergenceofatendencynottoward
thedivision,butrathertowardthecombinationofphilosophy
andtheoryoflaw.Suchastep,however,requirestheadoption
ofcertainspecificmethodologicalassumptions.Forexample,
apropositionhasrecentlybeenmadethatdrawsontheKantian
divisionbetweentheoreticalreasonandpracticalreason,which
fulfilldińerentcognitivefunctions.Inthissense,thetheoryof
law(theoreticalreasoningthatanalyzes,generalizes,andsys-
tematizes)standsalongsidetheethicsofthelaw(practicalcriti-
calreason).
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PARTI.METHODOLOGY
