The sociological turn
a. Doctrinal struggles and the emergence of the School
The Brussels School originated in the sociological turn in law and the social sciences. This turn must be understood in light of the doctrines then prevailing at the Université libre de Bruxelles. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the institution was still largely committed to the spiritualist and anti-positivist ideas of the German philosopher Karl Christian Friedrich Krause, developed further by his followers Heinrich Ahrens, Théodore Schliephake and Guillaume Tiberghien, professors at the University. A younger generation of progressive liberals, persuaded by the positivist and evolutionary ideas of Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer, would nevertheless challenge the University’s dominant and doctrinaire tradition, bring about an intellectual revolution and provide a decisive impetus for the foundation of sociology in Belgium.
The initial crucible of this revolution was the Faculty of Law, more receptive to new ideas than the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, which was dominated by Tiberghien and his opposition to atheism, materialism and positivism. The revolution would bear its fullest fruit in dynamic new institutions, established both within and outside the University as a result of the confrontation between spiritualists and positivists. They received direct or indirect support from the Belgian industrialist Ernest Solvay: the Université nouvelle, also known as the École Libre d’Enseignement Supérieur et Institut des Hautes Études de Bruxelles (1894), the Institut des sciences sociales (1894), the École des sciences politiques et sociales (1897) and the Institut de Sociologie Solvay (1902).
One of the leading figures of this intellectual revolution was Guillaume De Greef, a member of the Brussels Bar and a doctor of law. His two-volume Introduction à la sociologie, published between 1886 and 1889, made him the first Belgian sociologist in the fullest sense. His work was discussed in France by Émile Durkheim, among others. His sociology drew on Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer, while also taking from the Belgian Adolphe Quetelet an emphasis on quantitative and experimental methods.
Others who took part in this early sociological turn in Brussels included Hector Denis, a doctor of law and science; the jurists Paul Janson, Émile Vandervelde and Edmond Picard; and the future Nobel Peace Prize laureate Henri La Fontaine. From 1902, the intellectual movement continued through work conducted at the Institut de Sociologie Solvay under its director, the engineer Émile Waxweiler, and his close collaborators, the jurist Louis Wodon and the legal historian Guillaume Des Marez, a pupil of Henri Pirenne. This work was particularly influential in Europe and achieved international recognition.
Because, in Belgium until the First World War, sociology was “confined to the French-speaking liberal milieu of Brussels, which was strongly international”, the terms Brussels School and Brussels School of Sociology are used to describe the broad theoretical and practical orientations that emerged from this flourishing of ideas and initiatives.
b. Normative sociology and social engineering
Unlike Durkheim’s sociology, and following Comte, the sociology practised by the Brussels positivists, despite their differences, neither confines itself to nor accepts being confined to the observation, description and analysis of social facts. The Brussels School’s sociology was developed by jurists and engineers. It understood itself both as normative sociology and as social engineering. Its ambition was accordingly broad: beginning with observation of practice and its requirements, it sought to discover the laws governing society and its evolution, while also guiding social development towards progress. To that end, it developed and helped implement new instruments intended to promote the scientific governance of society and the evolution of law. This was a firmly engaged sociology. The Social Weeks organised by the Institut de Sociologie Solvay from 1912 attest to this practical and reformist ambition.
c. The sociological turn in law
The new ideas promoted by the Brussels School found particular expression in law. Its jurists engaged fully in the sociological and anti-formalist turn in legal scholarship, which brought “new life to the different branches of law”. All those who participated in the Institute of Sociology’s work, including Adolphe Prins, Maurice Bourquin, Paul Errera, René Marcq and Maurice Vauthier, renewed their discipline along sociological lines. Beyond this circle, the work of Paul Vander Eycken, who radicalised François Gény’s work on legal interpretation, and that of the eminent private-law scholar Henri De Page, who conceived law as “a social science, a branch of sociology, a living and experimental science par excellence”, likewise followed the Brussels School’s conception of law. The work of Georges Cornil, Léon Cornil, Henri Rolin and Georges Smets is also associated with the School.
The influence of the School’s early work on Belgian law was significant:
- In criminal law: the adoption of social defence legislation inspired by Adolphe Prins, and the reforms advanced by Léon Cornil when he was chief of staff to Émile Vandervelde;
- In social law: legislation on occupational accidents, prepared by Louis Wodon;
- In public law: the principle that public authorities are subject to the ordinary rules of liability, inspired by Louis Wodon and recognised by the Court of Cassation in La Flandria, and the establishment of the Council of State through the efforts of Maurice Vauthier and René Marcq.
Quotations translated from the French for this page.
