Psychological Approach to the study of law is an outlook of law that emphasizes the role of people in any given legal system. The psychological approach seeks to analyze the role stakeholders in a legal system such as judges, jurists, the defendant, attorneys and victims as outlined in a given legal system (Shultziner & Rabinovici, 2012). It further analyses the contribution of each human stakeholder in shaping a particular legal system. Experimental analysis is utilized in the psychological approach to the study of law to determine the interrelationship between the roles played by different human stakeholders in the legal system.
There are two main dilemmas encountered in the psychological approach to the study of law. The first dilemma is the dilemma of balancing rights (Shultziner & Rabinovici, 2012). For example, when a person is arrested for a crime of violence or murder, that person has a right to the presumption of innocence, and he is qualified to receive bail. However, that person could be truly dangerous to society; relieving such a person compromises the society’s right to safety and security. Therefore, balancing rights is a dilemma to the psychological approach to the study of law.
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The second dilemma in the psychological approach to the study of law is the conflict presented by the facts of equality in law versus discretion depending on circumstances of individual cases. The principle of equality requires similar cases to be decided in the same way. However, the principle of discretion allows the judge to determine similar cases differently depending on the unique circumstances of each case (Shultziner & Rabinovici, 2012). For example, murder committed by a mentally ill person cannot be decided similarly to a murder committed by a mentally upright person. As such, there is a conflict between the two principles in the psychological approach to the study of law.
Overall, the psychological approach to the study of law emphasizes the role that human actors in the legal systems play both within the confines of the system as well as in shaping the system. The two major dilemmas to this approach include balancing rights and equality in law versus discretion depending on circumstances of individual cases.
References
Shultziner, D., & Rabinovici, I. (2012). Human dignity, self-worth, and humiliation: A comparative legal–psychological approach. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 18 (1), 105-143.
