O direito como fato social

Abstract

In this word the intent is to demonstrate that law is always a verifiable phenomenon with social reality, thus a social fact. Law as a scientific object can be studied in three dimensions: through philosophy of law, through the "dogmatic-normative" science of law and through sociological justice. Miguel Reale, creator of the "three dimensional theory of law", affirms that law is, as the same time, fact, value and norm. Following this theory, various considerations can be developed, parallel with the "critical theory", defended by Luiz Fernando Coelho, who sees law as an instrument for radical social change and not simply a regulator of established social order. The development of this theme was exhaustively investigated during the classes of philosophy of law, part of the program for the Masters Degree in Law of Social Relations at the Universidade Estadual de Londrina and this paper is synthesis of our development.