ABSTRACT
The name ‘Scandinavian Realism’ is generally applied to the writings of the Swedish philosopher Hägerström (1868-1939), his compatriots and disciples, Lundstedt (1882-1955) and Olivecrona (1897-1980), and the Danish jurist, Ross (1899-1979). They were concerned, as were the American realists, to explain the law ‘as it is’; but unlike the Americans, the Scandinavians did not concentrate on the workings of the courts, and their explanations of the basis of law were often couched in the vocabulary of psychology.Theessential featuresof theirapproachareas follows:
• Metaphysical speculation is to be rejected. It comprises mere pseudo-concepts and is, therefore, a sham. (It is, in the words of Boltzmann, ‘a migraine of the human mind’.) Reality may be discovered and analysed only through an investigation of the ‘fundamental facts’ of the legal system. Assertions which are incapable of proof are nonsense. Hence, if a jurisprudential proposition cannot be verified through the experience of the senses, it is unacceptable.
