Ours is a Broad Church: Indirectly Evaluative Legal Philosophy as a Facet of Jurisprudential Inquiry

Abstract: Questions concerning the aims and aspirations, criteria of success and even proper de-lineation of the subject matter of theories of law, have given rise to some of the most intractable and contentious debates in contemporary legal philosophy. In this article, I outline my vision of the remit and character of legal philosophy, with particular em-phasis on the methodological approach with which I am most concerned in my own work, and which I refer to here as ‘indirectly evaluative legal philosophy’ (IELP). I do so partly in response to some vehement criticisms of, and, in my view, significant mis-characterisations of, IELP and cognate approaches to theorising about law, which fea-ture in some recent jurisprudential debates. My position, which I am in the process of developing in depth in a new monograph, supports a pluralistic methodological outlook which emphasises disciplinary and sub-disciplinary complementarity as an alternative to the febrile adversarialism sometimes afflicting our discipline. For, in my view, ours is a broad church, and all theoretical accounts able to illuminate and help us under-stand any aspect of law’s variegated and complex character are (to invoke a Scottish saying) welcome in the main body o’ the kirk. Keywords: JURISPRUDENCE; LEGAL PHILOSOPHY; METHODOLOGY; INDIRECTLY EVALUATIVE LEGAL PHILOSOPHY; METHODOLOGICAL PLURALISM