On the Concept and the Nature of Law

Abstract. The central argument of this article turns on the dual‐nature thesis. This thesis sets out the claim that law necessarily comprises both a real or factual dimension and an ideal or critical dimension. The dual‐nature thesis is incompatible with both exclusive legal positivism and inclusive legal positivism. It is also incompatible with variants of non‐positivism according to which legal validity is lost in all cases of moral defect or demerit (exclusive legal non‐positivism) or, alternatively, is affected in no way at all by moral defects or demerits (super‐inclusive legal non‐positivism). The dual nature of law is expressed, on the one hand, by the Radbruch formula, which says that extreme injustice is not law, and, on the other, by the correctness argument, which says that law's claim to correctness necessarily includes a claim to moral correctness. Thus, what the law is depends not only on social facts, but also on what the law ought to be.     

Rules,Institutions, Transformations. Considerations on the “Evolution of Law” Paradigm

The article's main objective is to test the merits of the evolutionary paradigm as it has been applied first to social phenomena and then more specifically to the legal domain. In a preliminary move, a set of the available concepts of law is worked out. A discussion of the idea of evolution and of its use in the social sciences follows. Functionalism and systems theory are scrutinized, with a close eye to the new doctrine of “autopoiesis.” Once an institutional and normative concept of law is agreed upon, attempts to introduce an “evolutionary” paradigm are deemed—the article contends—to be unfruitful. The article concludes that, if law needs a metaphysics, it should be one which allows for change, transformation and the emergence of the radically new. A social universe without gaps, all possible forms of which are determined from the beginning, will end up as the opposite of what we are used to considering as the practice of law.     

The Purpose of Legal Theory: Some Problems with Joseph Raz’s View

This article seeks to clarify Joseph Raz’s contention that the task of the legal theorist is to explain the nature of law, rather than the concept of law. For Raz, to explain the nature of law is to explain the necessary properties that constitute it, those which if absent law would cease to be what it is. The first issue arises regarding his ambiguous usage of the expression “necessary property”. Concurrently Raz affirms that the legal theorist has the following tasks: (a) explain the essential properties of that which the concept of law refers to, which exists independently from any concept of law; (b) explain the essential properties of law given our concept of law. After trying to dissolve the ambiguity of Raz’s argument, I conclude that based on his methodological commitments the only possible task for a legal philosopher would be conceptual analysis, understood as the task of explaining our concept of law.     

原则理论与法概念争议

法理学中法概念之争的中心议题在于法律和道德在概念上是否存在必然联系,或者说法律效力和道德正确性之间是否存在必然联系。为了证立联系命题,阿列克西在其早先的原则理论的基础上提出了原则论据,后者包括安置命题、道德命题与正确性命题。在逐一检讨了这三个命题的恰当性以及其与联系命题间的关联度后可以认为,原则论据无法用来证立联系命题。但这并不表示联系命题就必然失败,因为原则理论可以别的方式来证明它。法概念的争议是有关法律效力判准的争议,最终是政治哲学上的争议。     

Making the Case for Socio‐legal Research in Land Law: Renner and the Law of Mortgage

The aim of this article is to enhance knowledge of and to encourage further research into two areas not traditionally the subject of socio‐legal research, namely, the work of Karl Renner and the English law of mortgage, for three reasons. First, an account of them supports the proposition that a true understanding of law requires knowledge of its origins, content, and function. Second, Renner's theory can contribute significantly to our understanding of law by offering an alternative to the polarized debate between legal autopoiesis and other sociological conceptions of law. Third, it has much to tell us about the relationship between legal and social change. In particular, Renner's work suggests that those seeking legal reform should look not to the legislature, but to those capable of influencing its ‘social function’. Those frustrated by the lack of doctrinal reform within the law of mortgage can take heart, therefore, from the continual process of change evident in its social function. Ultimately, however, further socio‐legal research is required, for a more developed understanding of the law of mortgage.     

Sanction and Obligation in Hart's Theory of Law

Abstract. The paper begins by challenging Hart's argument aimed to show that sanctions are not part of the concept of law. It shows that in the “minimal” legal system as understood by Hart, sanctions may be required for keeping the legal system efficacious. I then draw a methodological conclusion from this argument, which challenges the view of Hart (and his followers) that legal philosophy should aim at discovering some general, politically neutral, conceptual truths about law. Instead, the aim should be to discover the values because of which certain things in the world are classified as law and others as non‐law. Focusing on those would give us a more insight to the roles law plays in society, as well as more illuminating answers to traditional jurisprudential questions like the status of law in evil regimes.     

MEDIATION AND THE PROCESS OF FAMILY LAW REFORM

The family law system needs fixing. The real question is how to go about fixing it. The concept of mediation and its process should be vital in the rethinking and restructuring of the system. This article discusses how mediation can be used in policy-making to get all the stakeholders in the family law system to creatively and non-judgmentally work toward reform. The author contends that increased legal access and speedy low-cost dispute resolution should be at the top of the reform agenda. Courts and professional offices are valued for their consumer-friendliness, stressing nonadversarial settings and cleint education. Unbundling is urged to be not only accepted but also promoted as a practice to meet the legal needs of families. The article concludes with the argument that effective reform should incorporate the principles of mediation, and the reform process should take advantage of models of consumer friendliness from both the public and private sectors .     

法律方法论体系的“逻辑”问题

法律方法论体系属于实用法学中的基础理论问题。对其进行研究是建构法律方法论学科的逻辑基础。从司法的视角看，法律发现、法律解释、法律论证、价值衡量、法律推理以及支持这些方法的诸多法学原理构成了法律方法论体系。这一体系与过去建构在法律原理分析基础的法律运用有很多的区别，是一种开放性的法律方法体系，更能体现法律方法的艺术性。     

Bright‐Line Fever: Simple Legal Rules and Complex Property Customs among the Fataluku of East Timor

Recent law and economics scholarship has revived a debate on bright‐line rules in property theory. Economic analysis asserts a baseline preference for bright‐line property rules because of the information costs if “all the world” had to understand a range of permitted uses, or deal with multiple interest holders in a resource. A baseline preference for bright‐line rules of property arises from the cost of communicating information: all else being equal, complex rules suit smaller audiences (e.g., contracting parties) and simple rules suit large audiences (e.g., property transactors, violators, and enforcers). This article explores the circumstances in which a simple rule, purportedly for a large audience, takes on interpretive complexity as it traverses specialized audience segments. The argument draws on two heuristic strands of recent sociolegal scholarship: systems theory notions of autopoiesis, and concepts of negotiability in plural property relations. The potential for complex interpretations of simple legal rules is illustrated through a case study of the Fataluku language group in the district of Lautem, East Timor.     

The Special Case Thesis and the Dual Nature of Law

In this article, I take up two arguments in favor of the discursive model of legal argumentation: the claim to correctness argument and the dual nature thesis. The argument of correctness implies the dual nature thesis, and the dual nature thesis implies a nonpositivistic concept of law. The nonpositivistic concept of law comprises five ideas. One of them is the special case thesis. The special case thesis says that positivistic elements, that is, statutes, precedents, and prevailing doctrines, are necessary for law in order to achieve legal certainty. Without this, law would not be as perfect as it could possibly be. But it says, at the same time, that this alone would not be enough to fulfill the claim to correctness. The claim to correctness refers not only to the real dimension of law, defined by statutes, precedents, and prevailing doctrines, but also to its ideal dimension, defined, first and foremost, by justice. The special case thesis is my oldest thesis. It has remained an essential element of my system over the years. Its connection with four other theses—the Radbruch formula, the human rights thesis, the idea of deliberative democracy, and principles theory—does not change this at all. On the contrary, this connection has lent greater strength to the special case thesis.     

Absolutism and the ‘rule of law’ in Denmark 1660–c. 1750

With the introduction of absolutism in Denmark, the country became one of the two most absolute monarchies in Europe. The question arises whether the concept of the ‘rule of law’ was compatible with absolutism, or whether it was totally contrary to this form of government. Through an analysis of the criteria central to the concept of the ‘rule of law’, for example, the public proclamation of laws, the independence of the courts, predictable proceedings, the right of appeal, due care, legal aid, promptness of legal proceedings etc., and evidence of practice from public records, the present article concludes that although the ‘rule of law’ was fragile, as it depended on the absolute king's mercy, there was an ideal among the ruling elite that the ‘rule of law’ ought to be respected, and the rural and urban population trusted the system.     

Inventing Drugs: A Genealogy of a Regulatory Concept

The trade in, and consumption of, illicit drugs is perhaps the archetypal ‘wicked problem’ of our time – complex, globalized, and seemingly intractable – and presents us with one of the very hardest legal and policy challenges of the twenty‐first century. The central concept of a ‘drug’ remains under‐theorized and largely neglected by critical socio‐legal and criminological scholars. Drawing on a range of primary archival material and secondary sources, this article sets out a genealogy of the concept, assembled a little over a century ago out of diverse lines of development. It is argued that the drug label is an invented legal‐regulatory construct closely bound up with the global drug prohibition system. Many contemporary features of the ‘war on drugs’ bear traces of this genealogy, notably how drug law enforcement often contributes to racial and social injustice. To move beyond prohibition, radical law and policy reform may require us to abandon the drug concept entirely.     

The Distorted Jurisprudential Discourse of Nazi Law: Uncovering the ‘Rupture Thesis’ in the Anglo-American Legal Academy

It has been remarked that the ‘rupture thesis’ prevails within the Anglo-American legal academy in its understanding of the legal system in Nazi Germany. This article explores the existence and origins of this idea—that ‘Nazi law’ represented an aberration from normal legal-historical development with a point of rupture persisting between it and the ‘normal’ or central concept of law—within jurisprudential discourse in order to illustrate the prevalence of a distorted (mis)representation of Nazi law and how this distortion is manifested within the discourse today. An analysis of the treatment of Nazi law in two major 50th anniversary publications about the 1958 Hart–Fuller debate, and a review of representations of the Third Reich within literature from the current discourse, demonstrates that the rupture thesis continues to be reproduced within jurisprudence. An examination of the role of Nazi law in the Hart–Fuller debate itself shows that it can be traced back to the debate, where it was constructed through a combination of conceptual determinism and historical omission. It concludes that the historical Nazi law has great significance for the concept of law, but neither positivism nor natural law has properly theorised the nature of the real Nazi legal system.     

税收法律行为初论

与税收法律关系同样都为税法学的基本范畴 ,但税收法律行为的研究在传统税法学理论中却付之阙如 ,本文即对此作出了探索性的研究。本文首先界定了税收法律行为的概念 ,并确定了其较为重要的种类划分 ;然后 ,通过对税收法律行为与行政法律行为以及私法法律行为之间关系的分析 ,明确了税收法律行为的公、私法交融的性质特征 ,并着重以契约行为为例加以进一步的说明 ;最终 ,将税收法律行为与税法上的事实行为一起 ,初步构建了税法上行为的体系。     

民法上“法益”概念的探源与本土化

《民法总则》第126条中的"利益",与我国民法学界持者甚众的狭义法益说中的"法益"含义大致相同,指的是权利之外应当受到法律保护的客体,是立法者为解决其预见性不足的弹性规范设计。上述界定与"法益"概念的原意不符,和刑法学界的惯常用法存在明显差别,属于概念移植过程中的本土化改造。"民事权利和利益"的二分法和狭义法益说在法理、逻辑上都不能成立,也不具备法益理论应当具备的分类、区分保护和评价功能,必然会造成立法表述与司法裁判说理中的冲突。"法益"概念的本土化界定,应当建立在共识的基础上,寻求统一的、适用于包括刑法、民法等在内的各个部门法的"法益"概念。"法益"是应当受到法保护的利益,此处的法既包括实然意义上的法律,也包括应然意义上的法。法益是权利的上位而非平行概念,《民法总则》第126条中的"利益"实质上是未被立法明文规定的未上升为权利的法益,未来修法时应将该条修改为"民事主体享有其他民事权利和未上升为权利的法益"。     

一部宪法与一个时代——《美国宪法》在清末民初的传入及对民初中国立宪的影响

在世界法制史上,法律移植和法律融合是非常普遍的现象,也是各国法律建设中的一个重要内容。《美国宪法》输入中国,并对中国发生影响的过程,就是中国移植《美国宪法》及其制度,并以之为蓝本改造本土法,使两者并存融合的过程。探究这一问题,对于正确认识我国近代法制,以及在转型时期如何吸收外国法都有重要的意义,可以从中发现一些值得借鉴之处。     

Reflections on the sociology of law: A rejection of law as ‘socially marginal’

Rejecting the concept of law as subservient to social pathology, the principle aim of this article is to locate law as a critical matter of social structure – and power – which requires to be considered as a central element in the construction of society and social institutions. As such, this article contends that wider jurisprudential notions such as legal procedure and procedural justice, and juridical power and discretion are cogent, robust normative social concerns (as much as they are legal concerns) that positively require consideration and representation in the empirical study of sociological phenomena. Reflecting upon scholarship and research evidence on legal procedure and decision-making, the article attempts to elucidate the inter-relationship between power, ‘the social’, and the operation of law. It concludes that law is not ‘socially marginal’ but socially, totally central.     

Inequality,Just Price and Bad Bargains: Contracting Attitudes after the South Sea Crash, 1720

ABSTRACT

In 1720, following the crash in South Sea stock, some doubted the legal and ethical enforceability of contracts concluded on the secondary market for the purchase of future South Sea stock. This article examines the argument of David Dalrymple who drew upon civil law, natural law and the notion of a just price to advocate for the annulment of these so called ‘time bargains’. It demonstrates why Dalrymple's just price argument held a rhetorical relevance, as an ethical argument, even if the effectiveness of such a plea in both Scottish and English courts, during the early eighteenth century, is doubtful. Additionally, in setting out the context of his pamphlet and the wider debate, this article also draws attention to the emergence of a new ethical rhetoric of commerce and contracting, which argued against Dalrymple, and for the enforcement of these contracts. Lastly, this article contends that a wider conception of what constitutes the legal context of the South Sea crisis is needed, through which a deeper understanding can be gained of what role the law played in resolving the crisis and how political and ethical attitudes shaped the use of law, specifically contract law.     

反就业歧视法律问题之比较研究

文章分析了就业歧视的概念、表现形式和危害,介绍了国际上关于就业歧视产生根源的不同理论解说,评析了有关国际条约及美国、英国、加拿大和我国关于反歧视的立法规定,并就完善我国反就业歧视的法律制度提出了具体建议:(1)完善相关立法;(2)扩大法律援助的范围;(3)加强司法介入;(4)正确界定政府角色,加强劳动执法监督检查力度。     

关于我国物权法体系结构的思考

法律的体系结构问题是一个按一定逻辑联系将法律规范加以排列组合的问题。各国民法典 (包括其物权编 )体系结构上的差异 ,原于体系设计者选择的逻辑标准不同。法国法系国家在设计其民法典 (包括其物权编 )的体系结构时 ,更注重调整对象标准 ;而德国法系国家在设计其民法典 (包括其物权编 )的体系结构时 ,则更倾向于法权形式标准。本文作者主张以调整对象为标准来分配物权法与债法的内容 ,将作用于商品交换领域的抵押、质押、留置及让与担保等担保制度纳入债法规定 ,而不照搬德国法系国家的作法纳入物权法规定。对物权法内部的体系结构 ,本文作者主张除总则外 ,分所有权、用益物权、相邻权、占有与登记四个组成部分 ,以分别调整物的归属关系、物的用益关系、不动产相邻关系及无本权的动产占有人、不动产物权登记名义人与物之本权人之间的关系。本文作者认为 ,这一体系结构有利于明确物权法内各制度各自作用的社会经济生活领域 ,张扬它们各自不同的目的和功能 ,实现它们各自不同的价值。