General Jurisprudence

General Tendencies of Western Academic Law:

 “The Westphalian duo”
 Municipal state law – supreme, the most important of the normative orders in
existence (though doesn’t deny the existence of other normative orders).
 Public international law – classically ordering the relations between states.
Applies to international treaties & agreements.
 Nation-states & legal systems are largely closed & self contained, allowing them to be
studies in isolation.
 Modern law & jurisprudence is secular – almost totally independent of Judaeo-
Christian origins.
 Modern state law is rational & bureaucratic. It serves as a means from achieving
certain particular social needs & to serve certain functions.
 In terms of the operation of law, a “top-down” persepective is best to understand it –
rulers, legislators & elites. The points of view of consumers, victims & other subjects
are, at best, marginal.
 Modern state law is almost exclusively a Northern creation – has diffused through the
rest of the world through imperialism, colonialism, settlement, trade & other post-
colonial influences eg, IMF, World Bank.