Escape the Metrics: The Consequences of Quantitative Approaches in Law

Abstract Can the subject be reduced to a set of metrics? This article seeks to address the challenge of reducing complex social issues to easily commensurable values, examining the implications and potential drawbacks of this approach. To obtain these values we use various measurements, calculations, techniques, and similar natural sciences. The author reflects on the rational nature of such reductive solutions, emphasising their ability to bring clarity to the complex world around us. Seemingly free of ideological overtones and external influences, they present us with hard facts to rely on. But what if this ‘quantitative turn’ in law marks the possibility of ideology becoming stronger than ever? The author concludes that the pervasive ‘ideology of metrics’ in public discourse demands critical examination and provides considerations for the fostering of a nuanced perspective, urging a cautious approach as to what may seem like self-evident laws of computation.