GENEALOGY AND JURISPRUDENCE - NIETZSCHE, NIHILISM, AND THE SOCIAL SCIENTIFICATION OF LAW

In Twilight of the Idols, Nietzsche presents a history of metaphysics that can also be read as a history of jurisprudence. Nietzsche shows h ow-via Platonism, Christendom, Kantianism, and utilitarianism-the ''re al'' or ''true'' world of ideals gives way to an ''apparent'' phenomen al world that is itself ultimately brought into question. This article shows how 20th-century legal thought, broadly construed, also moves a way from ''ideals'' of law toward an understanding of law as observabl e social phenomena. It suggests that the move to the ''apparent'' worl d in legal thought raises questions similar to those raised by Nietzsc he's work: Does sociological law point to a nihilistic destruction of the legal tradition or to a joyous possibility of overcoming that trad ition?