April 26, Back to the Source of Law A Proposal for Empirical Legal Studies at the Legislator Niels van Dijk

Background –Legal philosophy –LSTS & Interdisciplinarity –Ethnography –Link with AIME project Proposal April 26, 20152

Turning to Legal Practice Turn away from legal theories. Approach phenomena by turning to legal practices. Empirical philosophy of law in action. 2 Empirical Studies Law Firm Courts of Commerce

A Conflict-based Approach -Follow the matter of dispute as it proceeds from techno-commercial sites of enterprises, law firms offices, court registry, courtroom, judge’s offices, until its arrival at judgment. -The matter of dispute is here gradually turned into a matter of fact and a legal object through constant articulation by legal instruments, techniques and vocabulary.

Life of the Legal Dispute proceedings Reconstruction ConclusionsPleas Summons: Claim Judgment ExtentionCondensation Contraction

Extention from Adjudicative Practices to the Creation of Laws in Legislative Practices Proposal

Legislation & Legal Theory Biased to adjudication: –application of law by the judge Neglect of legislation: –creation of laws by the legislator April 26, 20157

Legislation & Legal Theory Law is often disqualified as result of political process or power struggle. Law is taken as a given for legal theory Study the exigencies of these processes of creating laws themselves. April 26, 20158

Legisprudence. Turning from theory to practice A concern for a legal rational theory of legislation –Cohen (1950, ) –Wintgens (2002 >) What about an account of practices of legisprudence in legislative networks? April 26, 20159

Study the creation of laws in action by an issue and conflict based approach Mapping the legislative networks in which political issues are gradually transformed into a law through a series of specific tools, techniques, conditions and interactions. Special focus on: –the role of law as a co-actor within these processes, especially through its special techniques of ‘legistics’, –the interfaces between law and other practices. April 26,

Research questions 1.How is a law constructed? 2.Which legal operations play a role in this process? 3.How do these relate to the actions of practitioners from different practices? April 26,

Research questions 1.How is a law constructed? 2.Which legal operations play a role in this process? 3.How do these relate to the actions of practitioners from different practices? April 26,

Research questions 1.How is a law constructed? 2.Which legal operations play a role in this process? 3.How do these relate to the actions of practitioners from different practices? April 26,

What is legal about legislation? Which qualities make a bill a suitable legal source? With which techniques and technologies of stabilization? April 26,

Research questions 1.How is a law constructed? 2.Which legal operations play a role in this process? 3.How do these relate to the actions of practitioners from different practices? April 26,

A heterogenous network societal (or technological) issues that will lead to the gathering of those concerned, the production of impact assessments reports of these issues by scientists, the organizational and political production of proposals that address these issues, lawyers transforming these proposals into texts suitable for the judiciary, the assessments of the economical feasibility and social impact of the proposed law. April 26,

Plan Analysis of the dominant images, models and theories of legislation and its relations between law, politics, organisation, science and technology Mapping the legislative networks in Administration Mapping the legislative networks in Parliament Mapping the legislative networks in the Council of State Description of the typical legal operations in these settings Description of the observed relations between law, politics, technology, organization and science. April 26,

Sites of Study The research will follow the circulation of public issues at the legislature through the processes in which they are drafted: As bills at ministerial departments –E.g. the Office for Intellectual Property How bills are further prepared, modified or reported at the legislative commissions in parliament –E.g. those of science & innovation and justice How their legal quality is checked and increased in the legislative section of the Council of State. April 26,

Legal Regimes The preferred focus of the study will be on issues that imply relations to science and technology, or law itself privacy & data protection, intellectual rights, liability, environmental law, medical law, procedural law, constitutional law April 26,

The Philosophical Context

To a constructivist symmetry of the fact/norm dichotomy Science studies have studied the constructivist character of facts (Fleck, Latour) And how social values and norms enter into these constructions (Fleck, Kuhn). April 26,

Everything becomes value- laden, normativities seem to multiply everywhere What is a norm? Are norms just given in this way? April 26,

Can legislative practices be seen as the laboratory for the material construction of norms? Can they serve to symmetrically reconfigure the epistemological fact- norm dichotomy? April 26,

Crossings Law and Politics: Law and Science: input into policy Law and Technology: Topic of regulation Law and Organisation: materialities and logistics of legislation April 26,

Images of Law Law as: Habit of obedience –This is politics Morality State April 26,

Law as the Guardian of: a.Sovereignty b.De State c.Politics d.Public Order The Classical Image of Law

Law as the Guardian of: a.Morality b.Justice c.Religion The Classical Image of Law

Legislation [POL*ORG] with [LAW] minors [ORG] Production of a script or scenario with roles to assume that will guide and control behavior (also [FIC]) Representation & obedience Legal stability of script April 26,

Politics as Circle, curved Representation: Connecting and collecting multitude into a unified “we” –rhetorics Obedience: impose requirements, orders, laws on multitude April 26,

Materialities of politics: –Sloterdijk’s: (atmos)spheres of politics –Latour’s: making things public –Marres’: Material Participation –Res publica as gatherings April 26,