What is jurisprudence?

Jurisprudence is the set of judicial decisions and resolutions (sentences) issued by judges and courts on different cases that they have to resolve.

It is a source of law that serves to understand how laws are interpreted and applied in practice, and to guide judges and courts in similar or similar cases.

Jurisprudence is not the same as laws, which are the written rules approved by state legislative bodies, such as Congress or the Senate. Laws are the first source of law, that is, what judges and courts must follow first when resolving a case. However, sometimes the laws are not clear, or there are no laws on a specific topic, or we find several that contradict each other. In these cases, jurisprudence helps judges and courts to resolve doubts or gaps that the laws may have.

Related concepts

• Sources of law
• Sentence
• Law
• Dispositive norm
• Imperative norm
• Custom