Empiricism and Legal Practice

Abstract

Empirical research had already lost the possibility of a naive claim to objectivity when empirical legal sociology began work in post-war Germany. From the mid-1960s general sociology was involved in the “Positivismusstreit” and was discussing the influence of preconceived interests of perception, commonplace theories and social interaction on empirical observation. Social scientists widely accepted the view that social reality does not exist objectively, but emerges intersubjectively. Science also shapes social reality. For sociology there is nothing which can simply be counted and measured.