Abstract

Gadamer’s influence on legal science has been widely analyzed, yet there remain areas in which the unique value of his thought for understanding law and its application has not yet been fully explored. One such area is the perspective of ontological hermeneutics, i.e. the question ofhow legal understanding contributes to the development of the jurist’s professional character—in other words, to the jurist’s very being. Gadamer famously asserts that an ‘increase in being’ occurs in the person who understands. This article examines how this idea applies to hermeneutic engagement with the law. Legal understanding involves more than the solution of legal problems and the peaceful regulation of human affairs. It can also have a profound impact on those who apply the law themselves or, for that matter, understand the application of the law by others. In this respect, the basis can not only be one’s own practical application of the law, but also participation in others’, possibly even past, engagement with the law. In this way, what unfolds is ‘legal experience’, understood as an encounter with the law in which the law is made manifest and experienced.