In this article I am investigating scientific theories and schemata of classification that are eliminating time and contingency in their explanations in favour of laws and classifications that are timelessly valid. The function of timeless validity is to guarantee legitimacy for a discipline and its methods. This is shown in several aspects:1. Legal encyclopedias and the concept of natural history 2. Myths of origin and bodies of law 3. Paradigmatic validity of classifications 4. Darwin’s theory of evolution 5. The syllogism in jurisprudence 6. Mechanistic explanations in biology. By eliminating time and contingencies in explanations researchers try to escape history and to reduce the human body to its physiology. I try to show that this has also consequences for law as a discipline and that there is and has been a parallel development in biology, medicine and law.