Are interdisciplinary Law Theory subjects allowed?

Question

Examples of such subject matters might be:

• "Upstream" context such as History of Law and Philosophy of Law, paradigmatic questions such as Legal Positivism vs. Natural Law vs. Jurisprudence of Values, and so on.
• "Horizontal" or "Parallel" context such as Comparative Law and Legal Systems
• "Downstream" issues such as Economic Analysis of Law and Constitutional Economics.
• Matters that are both "upstream" and "downstream", as they inform Lawmaking and are direly affected by it, such as Sociological Jurisprudence and Legal Anthropology
• Matters about applying STEM to Law in order to organize and structure the body of knowledge, facilitate and accelerate repetitive tasks, etc., such as Legal Informatics and Legal Technology.
• etc.

Would these be on-topic for the site? Or should we stay as close as possible to the nuts and bolts of legal practice and application of one system's laws?

Answer 1

Yes

The best questions are those that have specific answers; Law Stack Exchange is not a general discussion forum. In general, ask here if you have a question which covers:

• Statutes or court decisions
• Legal terms and language, doctrines and theory
• Legal process and procedure
• Historical legal applications
• Dealing with legal professionals

Subject to all the normal constraints on questions.

Answer 2

Whatever view is taken on the general question of interdisciplinary subjects, I would argue that Jurisprudence (in the sense of Legal Theory) should be allowed on Law SE.

This is because (in England at least) traditionally Jurisprudence has been a compulsory subject on the third year of a three year undergraduate law degree.

The rationale for this, I suppose, is that it is considered that law graduates ought to have at least some feel for how law as a system relates to wider issues and what a system of law is in essence. He knows nothing of law who only law knows as the saying goes.

Also it is really those who have studied/practised law who can best judge whether a particular legal theory fits what they know (from the inside) law to be, so it is not really suitable to be hived off into some other subject such as philosophy or sociology.