Underhill Moore's Legal Science: Its Nature and Significance

Abstract

THE legal science of Underhill Moore was the product of the two major movements of moder legal thought: legal realism and sociological jurisprudence. It demonstrates both the strength and the limitations of these two legal theories. His work had this somewhat paradoxical character because he substituted scientifically exact methods and deeds for the vivid but unverifiable, pseudo-descriptive prose in which these two movements had all too often been previously expressed. When this was done the actual capability of a legal science grounded in a realistic application of scientific methods to social and legal facts was revealed to be quite different from what many earlier proponents had claimed. Consequently, more than anyone else Underhill Moore demonstrated precisely what legal realism and sociological jurisprudence as traditionally conceived can and cannot do. And for this reason his work probably marks not merely the culmination of the jurisprudence of the recent past but also a turning point in legal science generally. It is as important, therefore, as a clue to the legal science of the immediate future as it is to an estimation of the remarkable original contributions of Underhill Moore to legal and social science that we become clear about the aim, the method and the results of the unique sociology of law which he created and applied.