Asking Why in the Study of Human Affairs

American Journal of Jurisprudence, 2015, Forthcoming

Queen's University Legal Research Paper No. 2015-55

26 Pages Posted: 21 Apr 2015 Last revised: 5 May 2015

See all articles by Grégoire Webber

Grégoire Webber

Queen's University - Faculty of Law; London School of Economics - Law School

Date Written: April 20, 2015

Abstract

For the study of human affairs, there is a strategic question that directs inquiry: why? Why did persons act the way they did? What were their reasons for so acting? When one seeks to study human affairs of a time and place, one puts the question ‘why?’ to the persons of that time and place and seeks to understand their reasons for acting, as they conceive them. But when one seeks to study human affairs generally, one puts the question ‘why?’ to oneself and interrogates what truly good reasons there are for acting. Law earns a place in the study of human affairs only if there are truly good reasons to favour it and, if there are, those reasons will identify the central case of law, which will be united with the law of different times and places by a network of similarities and differences. The argument suggests that there is an order of priority in the questions one asks in order to develop a general theory of law: ask ‘why choose law?’ before and in order to answer ‘what is law?’

Keywords: general jurisprudence, methodology, human affairs, description, explanation, central case, central case method

Suggested Citation

Webber, Grégoire, Asking Why in the Study of Human Affairs (April 20, 2015). American Journal of Jurisprudence, 2015, Forthcoming, Queen's University Legal Research Paper No. 2015-55, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2596943

Grégoire Webber (Contact Author)

Queen's University - Faculty of Law ( email )

128 Union Street
Kingston, Ontario K7L3N6
Canada

HOME PAGE: http://law.queensu.ca/directory/gregoire-webber

London School of Economics - Law School ( email )

Houghton Street
London, WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/law/staff/gregoire-webber.htm

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