Legal Science vs. Science in Law

Abstract

Article adapated from remarks given to a scientific audience (the Academy of Forensic Science). Judge Aldisert suggests that there is science in the legal profession, just as there is measure, methodology, system and regularity to the discipline of the conventionally scientific professions, physical or social. But, legal science describes a reasoned body of principles for the administration of justice; a body of principles, not a compilation of detailed rules or a compendium of regulations. While legal science does form some parameters -- some limitation on the part of judges to decide cases other than by whim, caprice, or personal inclunation -- the symmetry of law should represent only a means to an end. Although it is desireable that there be a certain degree of scientific law, law must not degenerate into mechanical jurisprudence, wherein the quality of the law is determined by the niceties of its internal structure rather than by the results it acheives.

Keywords: law, science, judicial process, forensic science, legal forensics, science in law, legal science, Aldisert, forensics