The Foundations & Consequences of Legal Textualism in Modern Judicial Systems

The transition from the reform movement of the sixteenth century and the enlightenment of the eighteenth century led to the formation of legal modernity alongside philosophical modernity, political modernity and scientific modernity, which are characterized by legal textualism. Based on this approach, judges should present the result of their judgment within the framework of legal texts and formal judicial logic. The subject of this article and the main question of it is: “What are the foundations on which legal textualism are based and what are its consequences in modern judicial systems?” In this article, we will first deal with the concept of legal textualism with a descriptive method so that we can then deal with the epistemology of the principles of legal textualism and its consequences with an analytical method. The results of this article introduce the principles on which legal textualism is based. In addition, the result of this article will reveal that the rigid approach to law and inferential method is not always in accordance with legal ideals and justice and it will confuse the ontological, epistemological and anthropological foundations of legal systems based on the principles of modernity with traditional and religious legal systems.