Retsteori

Retsteori is a term used to describe the study of the nature of law and the theory behind legal systems, including how legal rules are formed, interpreted, and applied, as well as the justification for legal authority. In Swedish-language contexts the more common term is ofta rättsteori, but retsteori may appear in older or informal texts or in adjacent discussions about jurisprudence. The field is interdisciplinary, drawing on philosophy, political theory, and social science to analyze law as a source of social order and as a set of normative positions.

Key questions in retsteori include what counts as law, what makes legal rules valid, and how law relates to morality and justice. Other central topics are the sources of law (legislation, precedent, custom, and doctrine), the role of interpretation in legal reasoning, the balance between authority and rights, and the status of individuals’ rights within legal frameworks. Subfields often include normative jurisprudence (what the law ought to be), descriptive or analytical jurisprudence (how law operates in practice), and applied areas such as constitutional theory, human rights theory, and legal methodology.

Historical and theoretical traditions within retsteori encompass natural law, legal positivism, interpretive theories, critical and feminist jurisprudence, and rights-based approaches. Prominent debates concern the nature of legal truth, the relationship between law and morality, the priority of statutes versus judicial interpretation, and the extent to which law can or should reflect moral values. Retsteori informs legal reform, policy analysis, constitutional design, and the critical evaluation of legal systems.

See also jurisprudence, philosophy of law, legal positivism, natural law theory, rights theory.