Special Workshop Abstract

These purposes may be seen in various contexts. It may be seen as a way of supporting the existing teaching and research in legal philosophy which at many universities and law schools have difficult times because the more ‘dogmatic’ and practice-oriented disciplines take all the time and money. Secondly, an im­proved contact may be a challenge to some of the topics legal philosophers have worked with since a better grasp of the ‘real’ practical life may bring classi­cal philosophical problems into a new and possibly more relevant context.

Basically legal philosophy may be considered as a reflection of legal practice, and the needs of practitioners should therefore be an important input to legal philosophy.

Many cases have been decided on the basis of reasoning which is taken from or heavily inspired of legal philosophy, and a discussion and critical analysis of such cases will be relevant not only for practice and thereby future legal de­velop­ment but for legal philosophy itself.

A more radical position could be the following: (Legal) philosophy should not develop in isolation but be a way of thinking in (legal) life. A sort of prac­tical relevance is therefore the best test of relevance for legal philosophy since (legal) philosophy should not develop by itself but be a way of thinking in (legal) life.