Legal Rationality: Emergence, Evolution, and Influence
Legal Rationality: The Emergence of Legal Thought
Analysis of charismatic domination and traditional authority involves three steps: analysis of documentation, formulation of the general concept, and practical application or testing of the media in legitimizing and organizing.
Traditional authority, inherent in domestic communities, can be subdued by conflict. Charismatic authority, conversely, disrupts and depersonalizes.
Legal rule, in contrast, is the product of human planning and gradual development.
Hegel’s influence is evident in the philosophy of history, viewed as a sequence of events not solely determined by chance. Thus, legal rule is presented as the result of progressive development.
The proper object of analysis is not merely what people do, but what they think about what they do. Every individual is both rational and passionate; therefore, we must seek the passions behind a man’s reasoning and the reasoning behind his passions.
Emergence of Legal Rationality
From a theoretical standpoint, the general trend of law has progressed through the following stages:
- Charismatic legal revelation through prophets of the law.
- Creation and empirical discovery of the law by legal notables.
- Law enforcement powers by secular or theocratic authorities.
- Systematic development of professionalized law and administration of justice by technically trained individuals.
Charismatic Revelation of the Law
Legal prophecies were interpreted by prophets and priests, who arbitrated legal disputes. Coercive power was held by political appointees.
According to Weber, estates groups were carriers of ideas in historical change:
- Prophets were charismatic law scholars chosen for their magical qualities.
- Notable legal figures would become legitimate servants whose position would be hereditary.
Law Enforcement
Law enforcement powers were wielded by secular and theocratic authorities, intervening to eliminate the influence of assemblies.
Church and Legal Rationality
Causes of formal rationality in canon law:
- Regulation of relations with secular authorities in compliance with normative ideas concerning justice.
- Inheritance of the logic of ancient philosophy.
- The Church created the first body of law based on the Germanic model.
- Universities rationalized medieval canon law.
- Lawyers of the Church developed a body of fundamental laws, government decrees, and resolutions of the council.
- Officials of the Church formed an autonomous bureaucratic hierarchy.
State and Legal Rationality
The monarch’s power extended to ensure peace, law, and order.
Acceptance of the verdict of 12 jurors replaced older, magical procedures.
The creation of laws relates to the struggle for power among the estates, creating conflicts of interest.
The king relied on a siege of dependent officials.
True systematic law originates from university-trained judges who apply Roman law.