Legal Realism Bound

Abstract

The article engages with a rich and provocative book by Bojan Spaić titled Priroda i determinante sudijskog tumačenja prava. While expressing agreement with the overall refutation of formalism as a theory of judicial decision-making, the critique challenges Spaić’s extreme version of legal scepticism. While linguistic formulations of legal norms are undoubtedly indeterminate, this indeterminacy is not as pervasive as Spaić contends. A degree of determinacy, however, explains more convincingly the interpretive uniformity that Spaić tries to explain by relying on determinants of judicial interpretation of law. While these factors may throw some light on the actual process of adjudication, the critique expresses doubts as to whether they can guarantee uniformity to the degree that Spaić asserts.

Keywords

• Formalism
• Interpretation of law
• Legal realism
• Indeterminacy
• Legal rule
• Determinants of judicial interpretation of law