The Study of Law as an Academic Discipline

Abstract

(UK). I thank the organisers and the participants on both occassions for their comments. I am also grateful to Peter Cane (Christ's College, Cambridge, UK) for an inspiring discussion of an earlier version as well as constructive written comments, and to the anonymous referees of this journal for saving me from a number of imprecisions. The all too sweeping statements that remain are my responsibility, of course. 1 Academic goes back to Academy, which originally refers to the research centre, just outside Athens, founded by Plato (c. 427-347), in an ancient grove dedicated to the hero Akadēmos, who allegedly had saved Athens from destruction. In the 15th century, upon the rediscovery of Plato's work in western Europe, Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) and other Florentine admirers of Plato used it for their Academy in Fiesole. The popularity of this institution has turned it into a term that is at least on the European continent often used interchangeably with university. 2 J. Smits makes a case for the study of law as an 'argumentative' discipline, for which reference can be made to his 'Redefining Normative Legal Science: Towards an Argumentative Discipline', in F. Coomans et al. (eds.

Editorial<br>Methodology of Legal Research: Challenges and Opportunities

“…René Brouwer has written an essay about the position of law as a discipline and lawyers as experts since antiquity, and about their role in universities. 19 As he makes clear, reading early legal documents based on original Roman sources was at the basis of law colleges, an idea that spread throughout Europe having been the cornerstone of the 11th century beginning of universities in Bologna. He also explained that the Norman way of adjudication, as established in England, was much more based on their own rules and precedent by then, and knowing the law of the land was a matter of professional expertise.…”