000 03039nam a22002171i 4500
005 20220507135418.0
008 140929s2007 enk ob 001 0 eng d
020 _a9781472563996
040 _aMAIN
082 0 4 _a340.1
100 1 _aPavlakos, George,
245 1 0 _aOur knowledge of the law :
_bobjectivity and practice in legal theory
_h[electronic resource] /
_cby George Pavlakos.
300 _a1 online resource (x, 267 pages)
500 _aBloomsbury Pub Ebook
504 _aIncludes bibliographical references (pages [249]-258) and index.
520 _a"In the long-standing debate between positivism and non-positivism, legal validity has always been a subject of controversy. While positivists deny that moral values play any role in the determination of legal validity, non-positivists affirm the opposite thesis. In departing from this narrow point of view, the book focuses on the notion of legal knowledge. Apart from what one takes to constitute the grounds of legal validity, there is a more fundamental issue about cognitive validity: how do we acquire knowledge of whatever is assumed to constitute the elements of legal validity? When the question is posed in this form a fundamental shift takes place. Given that knowledge is a philosophical concept, for anything to constitute an adequate ground for legal validity it must satisfy the standards set by knowledge. In exploring those standards the author argues that knowledge is the outcome of an activity of judging, which is constrained by reasons (reflexive). While these reasons may vary with the domain of judging, the reflexive structure of the practice of judging imposes certain constraints on what can constitute a reason for judging. Amongst these constraints are found not only general metaphysical limitations but also the fundamental principle that one with the capacity to judge is autonomous or, in other words, capable of determining the reasons that form the basis of action. One sees, as soon as autonomy has been introduced into the parameters of knowledge, that law is necessarily connected with every other practical domain. The author shows, in the end, that the issue of knowledge is orthogonal to questions about the inclusion or exclusion of morality, for what really matters is whether the putative grounds of legal validity are appropriate to the generation of knowledge. The outcome is far more integral than much work in current theory: neither an absolute deference to either universal moral standards or practice-independent values nor a complete adherence to conventionality and institutional arrangements will do. In suggesting that the current positivism versus non-positivism debate, when it comes to determining law's nature, misses the crux of the matter, the book aims to provoke a fertile new debate in legal theory."--Bloomsbury Publishing.
650 0 _aEffectiveness and validity of law.
650 0 _aLaw
856 4 0 _uhttps://doi.org/10.5040/9781472563996?locatt=label:secondary_bloomsburyCollections
942 _cEBK
999 _c17445
_d17445