A Nietzschean Justification of Legal Realism

Abstract

This essay examines the thought of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, the advances made by the legal realist juris- prudential movement, and correlates the two. It concludes that legal realism is entailed in Nietzschean metaphysics, and particularly his doctrine of will to power. Legal realism is d etermined to be a symptom of th e more comprehensive Nietzschean principle of power. A preliminary framework for a Nietzschean justification of legal realism is developed.