Cinta de Moebio: Revista de Epistemología de Ciencias Sociales

Alvarez, L. (2017) Algunos problemas que caracterizan las prácticas contemporáneas de producción de conocimiento jurídico. Cinta moebio 60: 268-278. doi: 10.4067/S0717-554X2017000300268

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Some problems that characterize contemporary practices of production of legal knowledge

Luciana Alvarez (lalvarezbauza@gmail.com) Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (Buenos Aires, Argentina) ORCID: 0000-0002-5319-2152

Abstract

We intend to show some problems that characterize practices of production and validation of legal knowledge within juridical science. Unlike what happens in social sciences in general, between legal science and law there is a singular configuration by which the limits on knowledge and the object of knowledge are very uncertain. This singularity allows us to understand why it is so difficult for the jurists to make scientific research rather than mere comments on the law with a strong trend to propose institutional reforms and social interventions. In this paper, we will focus on three obstacles that contribute to explain this singularity on legal science: a lack of reflection about epistemological assumptions, identification between the juridical and positive laws and between positive laws and legal texts, and the hegemony of legal dogma in the paradigm of legal science.

Key words: scientific knowledge, legal knowledge, epistemological assumptions, legal dogmatism, legal positivism.