In European legal history and the

philosophy of law Philosophy of law is a branch of philosophy that examines the nature of law and law's relationship to other systems of norms, especially ethics and political philosophy. It asks questions like "What is law?", "What are the criteria for legal vali ...

, the jurisprudence of interests is a doctrine of

legal positivism Legal positivism (as understood in the Anglosphere) is a school of thought of analytical jurisprudence developed largely by legal philosophers during the 18th and 19th centuries, such as Jeremy Bentham and John Austin. While Bentham and Austin de ...

of the early 20th century, according to which a written law must be interpreted to reflect the interests it is to promote. The main proponents of the jurisprudence of interests were

Philipp Heck Philipp Heck (22 July 1858 – 28 June 1943) was a German jurist and a leading proponent of the doctrine of jurisprudence of interests. After studies in Berlin, he taught law since 1891 at the University of Greifswald, since 1892 at the Universit ...

, Rudolf Müller-Erzbach,

Arthur F. Bentley Arthur Fisher Bentley (October 16, 1870 – May 21, 1957) was an American political scientist and philosopher who worked in the fields of epistemology, logic and linguistics and who contributed to the development of a behavioral methodology of ...

and

Roscoe Pound Nathan Roscoe Pound (October 27, 1870 – June 30, 1964) was an American legal scholar and educator. He served as Dean of the University of Nebraska College of Law from 1903 to 1911 and Dean of Harvard Law School from 1916 to 1936. He was a membe ...

. The school of legal positivism passed through the phase of the jurisprudence of interests after the

jurisprudence of concepts The jurisprudence of concepts was the first ''sub-school'' of legal positivism, according to which, the written law must reflect concepts, when interpreted.that means that the interpretation of the words stated in the law must be guided by the sc ...

. In the jurisprudence of interests, one interprets a law essentially in terms of the purposes it is intended to accomplish. This doctrine is characterized by the idea of obedience to law, and

subsumption Subsumption may refer to: * A minor premise in symbolic logic (see syllogism) * The Liskov substitution principle in object-oriented programming * Subtyping in programming language theory * Subsumption architecture in robotics * A subsumption ...

as the resolution of conflicts of interests in the

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

and in the abstract, whereby the interests necessary to life in

society A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Socie ...

, as materialized in that law, should prevail. It is therefore a distinctly

teleological Teleology (from and )Partridge, Eric. 1977''Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English'' London: Routledge, p. 4187. or finalityDubray, Charles. 2020 912Teleology" In ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'' 14. New York: Robert Appleton ...

school.

References

Theories of law Legal positivism {{Law-stub

See also

References