Our knowledge of the Law
objectivity and practice in legal theory
- ISBN: 9781841135038
- Editorial: Hart Publishing
- Fecha de la edición: 2007
- Lugar de la edición: Oxford. Reino Unido
- Encuadernación: Cartoné
- Medidas: 25 cm
- Nº Pág.: 267
- Idiomas: Inglés
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. 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 new debate in legal theory.