Law in the Spirit of our Age: Between Modernity and Postmodernity?

Abstract

The paper examines the epistemic position of the subject of law vis-à-vis modernity, postmodernity and the related themes of modernism and postmodernism, taking Western jurisprudence as the analytical paradigm. Western jurisprudence is given a wider meaning, especially through the formalist devices thereof, as these have spread all over the globe in one way or another. Furthermore, inductive exemplification of the matter is achieved through referral to certain provisions of the Latvian Civil Code on the occasion of the presentation of this paper in the 73^rd Scientific Conference of the University of Latvia in February 2015. Beyond this, drawing on wider theoretical matter from Western jurisprudence, the analysis concludes with a finding, which suggests that the epistemic position of law seems to maintain its largely modernist core still (albeit not without postmodernist challenge and/or benefit to the subject’s modernist credentials).