A Clash of Interests: Evaluating Roscoe Pound’s Theory of Social Engineering

Abstract

Roscoe Pound was one of the most famous jurists in American history who was caught in the flowing waves of the prevailing school of legal realism at the time. His presuppositions of jurisprudence included his division of four different types of jurisprudence, namely, analytical, historical, philosophical and sociological. However, he has overcriticized all different types on the basis of mere technicalities without going into more details. His most famous theory was his theory of social engineering which provides that law is the result of giving effect to the interests of a larger stakeholder in society at the cost of the smaller one. This is reminiscent of the principle of pareto efficiency in economics. This theory of social engineering however is not Pound’s own original theory, but is instead an offshoot of Rudolph Jhering’s theory of interests. Furthermore, he does not at all specify how to gather and understand the different types of interests of the different stakeholders. He is also incorrect about the process of legislation being the reflection of interests of dominant stakeholders. Rather, law is the result of reflecting the prevailing moral values of the people in society.