Law and the Meaning of Life

Law is composed of a series of norms and institutions that are designed to regulate human conduct. Many have tried to define the purpose of the law by analyzing the connection between law and politics or between law and morality. However, these perspectives are bound to be limited because they ignore the existence of law as a separate and distinct system of principles. Because this system of principles is designed to shape all aspects of human behavior, it is impossible to understand the law without understanding first the meaning of human behavior itself. This book will attempt to gain some general insights into the nature of law by using ideas from the humanities as the key to perceiving law as a perspective on life. Previous attempts to understand the law at such a level of generality have viewed it as a normative framework that is applied to life via legal narratives. In contrast, this book argues that it is the legal narrative itself that should serve as the point of entry for understanding the law because it is impossible to construct a coherent system of principles that would serve as the basis for the legal system. Instead, legal narratives reflect a certain sense of justice that is unique to a specific legal culture and determines how judges and other officials will react in particular circumstances. The book explores a method for understanding legal doctrine that aspires to be scientifically rigorous. It moves on to understanding the aims of law through a philosophical discussion of the meaning of life. Then, the book explores the role of law in fostering social solidarity and reviews some of the dilemmas that lawyers face in their role as guardians of this solidarity. The book also checks areas of severe contestation between theorists of jurisprudence who hold conflicting views about the nature of law. The book examines contrasting views about law as dichotomous or not, the view of the democratic state as working smoothly in unison or torn by mechanisms of checks and balances, and the question of whether certain areas of law have an inner logic that guides them or they are all just a result of particular legal experiences.