In this diagram law is located in the centre as a set of rules, labelled “Law as
Rules”. It is surrounded by spaces representing eight disciplines – sociology,
philosophy, psychology, linguistics, literature, management and history.
Law as Rules
Law as rules conceives law as a set of rules to be known and understood. Law
in this form is sometimes called black letter law. It is also sometimes called
positivist law. This description is derived from the theory of law labelled
positivism. In simple terms, the legal philosophy labelled natural law said that
the only valid law was a law that conformed to a permanent and
comprehensive set of values that pervaded human life. Positivists denied that
there was such a set of values and said, in simple terms, that law is any
command or prescription that issues from a law making authority. As this
description reveals, to describe black letter law as positivist law is ungainly,
but it is hallowed by usage.
The study of law as a set of rules is largely a matter of English comprehension.
To a considerable extent this is how law is conceived as a profession that
people practise. Know the rules and use them to help your clients.
However, in studying these rules or using them in the practice of law it is
impossible to insulate them entirely from their wider role as social phenomena.
For example, when a lawyer makes a submission to a judge they usually try to
put their argument in a way that is most calculated to appeal to the judge’s
known proclivities.
Law as a Social Science
In the diagram, law as a set of rules is surrounded by spaces representing eight
disciplines –
sociology, philosophy, psychology, linguistics, literature,
management and history. These eight disciplines are chosen as some of the
major human or social sciences that affect law. They represent, by way of
illustration, the full panoply of disciplines that bear down on and intermesh
with law.
There is a simple reason that law meshes with social and human sciences. Law
is made by people for people. Therefore to understand it fully it is necessary
to bring to bear an understanding of these connected disciplines when one
learns the rules.
That law is a social science will become apparent as this account of legal
method unfolds. It draws on a number of types of reasoning. These methods
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