Jurisprudence and Legal Theory

The field of jurisprudence or legal theory is important for law as a topic in general and has also been given generous space within the legal education at Örebro university, where it is one of three recurring themes that the students will meet, in one way or another, in all courses. It is also taught in the beginning and end of their studies, at one stage integrated with rhetorics.

At the scientific level, the activities have not been coordinated or organized to the same extent, due mainly to a shortage in active scholars in this area. A few articles have been written by Professor Joakim Nergelius, who specializes in Constitutional Law, and Associate Professor Max Lyles, who has a full-time task as head of unit. Thus, more scholars would be welcome in this field.

Against that background, it is very inspiring for the future that a new research project begun in 2014, namely by the doctorate candidate Elisabeth Aronsson. She will focus on the content and legal significance of a key concept within legal theory, namely the general principles of law. The idea of the project is to examine to what extent general principles are used in legal argumentation both by courts and legal doctrine and how this influences legal development. The results will include a comparative study involving Swedish and Spanish law. Emphasis is not given to any special field of law, but rather to general principles as an autonomous legal concept. The project is sponsored by the University of Örebro, with the abovementioned Professors as Supervisor and Assistant Supervisor. It will be finished in 2019.