关于“法律的生命在于经验而不在于逻辑”的解读

An Interpretation of the Thought “legal life lies in experience rather than logic”

从西方法律思想发展的历史来看,历史法学派和社会法学派均认为法律是被发现的,而非被制定的。在这样的观点大行其道的历史背景下,深受历史法学影响的霍姆斯大法官却以其"法律经验"对法律的产生进行研究。提出"法律的生命在于经验而不在于逻辑"的观点,在实质上解决了法律形式生命和实质生命的问题:即法律的形式生命在于逻辑,法律的实质生命在于经验,逻辑与经验相辅相成,缺一不可。由此,开辟了法律思想研究的新篇章。

According to the development history of western legal thought, the historical law school and social law school argue that the law is found rather than developed. In the historical context of this view, Holmes Justice, who was deeply influenced by historical jurisprudence, studied the development of law with his ＂legal experience＂ and put forward the idea that ＂legal life lies in experience rather than logic＂, opening up a new chapter in the study of legal thought, which essentially solved the problems of formal and real life of law, i.e., the formal life of law lies in the logic while the real life of the law lies in the experience.