We explain what jurisprudence is, the types that exist and their objectives. Also, what are its general characteristics and examples.
What is jurisprudence?
Jurisprudence is understood to be the set of decisions, judicial resolutions and rulings in a specific matter issued by the judicial institutions of a nation, within a specific legal framework. It is one of the sources of positive law , which studies and uses as a reference the decisions that judges made in the past.
The jurisprudence encompasses the legal doctrine established and established by the legal bodies of the State , generally the Supreme Courts of Justice (TSJ), and which are equivalent to the "history" of law in that country, that is, to the decisions previously made based on to the same laws and in similar situations.
Jurisprudence is what allows the law to always be applied in a similar way . Jurisprudence can also be considered as the science or philosophy of law, which studies the way in which laws are applied, applied and understood.
Origin of jurisprudence
The word "jurisprudence" comes from the Latin Iurisprudentia (from iuris , " right ", and prudentia , "wisdom"). In Roman Law , where our legal tradition largely comes from, it was understood as the knowledge of divine and human things, that is, of what belongs to each person: the science of what is just and what is unjust .
The conformation of contemporary jurisprudence, thus, implies thousands of years of evolution of law in our societies . But its foundations survive, to the point that many societies still use to some extent the terms of Roman jurisprudence, especially the Ius Commune ("common law").
Branches of jurisprudence
Jurisprudence comprises three main branches:
- Analytics. It studies the articulation of terms, axioms and methods that allow us to understand the legal system as a coherent, logical and consistent totality with itself.
- Sociological. It studies the effects of legal decision-making in the different aspects of society, as well as the ways in which the latter can condition legal decision-making.
- Theoretical. Study the laws and their aspects in more or less ideal terms, taking into account the objectives they pursue.
Types of jurisprudence
There is an exercise of jurisprudence for each segment of the law that exists, that is, for each type of legal decision that must be taken. Thus, it is possible to speak of labor jurisprudence (that is, of labor ), criminal (or criminal) jurisprudence, etc.
It is also possible to classify the jurisprudence based on its country of origin , establishing an Argentine jurisprudence, another American, another Japanese, etc. Whenever there is an official legal body making decisions on a matter, especially if it is inspired by the legal past of the nation, we will be facing an act of jurisprudence.
Jurisprudence as a source of law
The set of decisions of the courts of a country constitutes an input or a source for future debates and decisions . Past decisions of the institution allow the interpretation of the same legal situation in the same way, thus giving continuity to the law.
In other words: by observing how the judges of the past interpreted laws, legal institutions can be guided to capture the spirit in which the law was traditionally written or understood. This is known as the unifying or unified principle.
This helps them to be able to give continuity to the law , always understanding it in the same way or in similar ways, or to do justice in the event that it has traditionally been misinterpreted or to the detriment of someone.
Let us remember that law is a social science that depends heavily on its own history (the so-called positive law ). This is particularly important in Anglo-Saxon law.
Objective of the jurisprudence
The purpose of jurisprudence is to obtain a uniform interpretation of the laws , in order to apply them to the cases that reality presents to them. Thus, a more or less univocal criterion is maintained when making decisions. In addition, the corpus of positive law of a country remains stable and coherent.
Specificity
Jurisprudence is specific to nations , that is, it may vary from one country to another, depending on its current legal framework and its particular legal history. For this reason the decisions made on an issue in Argentina , Saudi Arabia and Russia can be very different.
Importance of jurisprudence
Jurisprudence is key to sustaining the logic and coherence of the legal system as a whole . Without it, decisions would always be made from scratch, without support or antecedents that provide sustenance and a traditional, historical sense. For the laws to be sustained over time, it is necessary to interpret them in a similar way in all their cases.
Who can create jurisprudence?
The judicial institutions of the State , official, recognized and in full use of their powers, are the only possible source of jurisprudence. There is only one in a country.
The sentences
The working unit of jurisprudence, so to speak, is judicial decisions. A sentence is a specific decision-making that comes from a legitimate court in some matter, and whose particularities are established in writing.
It is a type of document available for public review and contains all relevant elements of the case.
Examples of jurisprudence
Possible examples of jurisprudence are all judicial decisions that are historically stored in the archives of the judiciary.
When faced with a difficult case, they are reviewed by the judges to see how similar cases have been resolved in the past. In this sense, any judgment of a court is an example of the jurisprudence of a country.
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