MECHANICAL

JURISPRUDENCE
by: Roscoe Pound; 1908

Roscoe Pound
American jurist
Former dean of Harvard Law
School
Chief advocate of
sociological jurisprudence

Science in Law
A reasoned body of principles for the
administration of justice

Demand full, equal and exact justice

Danger of a Scientific Legal

System
Perfection of scientific system
individual initiative in the future

cuts

off

System decays into technicality which leads

to mechanical jurisprudence

Mechanical Jurisprudence
Common practice whereby judges apply
previous precedents to the facts of cases
without regard to the consequences

Sociological Jurisprudence
philosophical approach to law
stresses the actual social effects of
legal institutions, doctrines, and
practices.

Bottom Line:
Principles, not rules, should be the basis
of judicial decision
Life of a law is in its enforcement

Law must be stable

but it must not stand
still.
- Roscoe Pound; 1870-1964