Laila

CHAPTER ONE LAW IN SOCIAL CONTEXT Abiola Sanni
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.0.1 Definition of Legal Method
The phrase 'legal method' is made up of two words -'legal' and 'method.' The word "method," in
ordinary parlance, means a way of doing something or the quality of being well planned and
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organized. The word "legal," which is an adjective, connotes something connected with the
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law. Law operates in a society based on certain methods, that is, in accordance with certain
processes, which must be properly understood for law to be put to best uses as an instrument of
social control. Legal method can therefore be defined as an attempt to explain or analyse the
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technique of 'thinking like a lawyer. In other words, it is learning to study the use and
construction of legal rules, with a view to gaining insight into how law is planned and organized to achieve its objectives in a society.
This task, like most tasks, is not as easy as it may seems. This is mainly because everyone approaches the subject of legal analysis from different perspectives based on their background and experiences. In that type of situation, the existence of multiplicity of approaches is inevitable. However, there are some areas of agreement or consensus in virtually all the legal analysis.
According to a writer:
"We cannot see the world as it is because we face it in a 'contaminated' vein. Namely our conceptual scheme (or a certain interpretation of it) and our biological constitution condition certain perspectives of the world and not others. When we face legal orders and legal method, we are placed in a kind of second world that is not possible without the first. Nevertheless, this normative world, let us say second world, has some special features, inter alia, the primacy of practical reason over theoretical reason ..."4
This chapter examines the different perspectives and the areas of convergence of jurists and authors on the definition, evolution, functions and objecti