Preface. Preface to the English Edition. Description and Purpose of the Work. 0: Philosophy and Jurisprudence. 0.1. The Three Classical Dimensions of Legal Philosophy. 0.2. The Traditional Basic Controversy (Natural Law Versus Legal Positivism) and Contemporary Approaches to it. 0.3. Summary and Preview. 1: Legal Philosophy as Methodology. 1.1. Jurisprudential Concept of Science and the Position of Jurisprudence in the System of Sciences. 1.2. The Basic Types of Scientific Method. 1.3. Structure of Scientific Knowledge. 1.4. Classification of Sciences and the Position of Jurisprudence. 1.5. Model of the Functional Context of Juristic Methods. 1.6. Summary: the Open System Of Law. 2: Legal Philosophy as a Developmental Theory of Law. 2.1. Legal-Philosophical Relativism. 2.2. The Theory of Socio-Cultural Evolution As Frames of a Developmental Theory of Law. 2.3. Approaches to an Evolutionary Theory of Development of Law. 3: The Theoretical Model of a Deeper Argumentation. 3.1. The Meta-Theory of Juristic Argumentation. 3.2. Expansion Towards Historical-Genetic Dimension: Historical Discourse. 3.3. Extension Towards a Legal-Ethical Theory of Principles. 3.4. Rational Self-Construction of Law. References. Index.

This work for the first time brings together case law and law based on norms. It offers the reader a survey and a new explanation of evolutionary emergence of social contracts and constitutions in the European history, and should help to build a bridge between 'two cultures', science and humanities. It is addressed to philosophers of law, historians of law, theorists of science and social scientists.