The Long Arc of Legality

The Long Arc of Legality breaks the current deadlock in philosophy of law between legal positivism and natural law by showing that any understanding of law as a matter of authority must account for the interaction of enacted law with fundamental principles of legality. This interaction conditions law's content so that officials have the moral resources to answer the legal subject's question, 'But, how can that be law for me?' David Dyzenhaus brings Thomas Hobbes and Hans Kelsen into a dialogue with H. L. A. Hart, showing that philosophy of law must work with the idea of legitimate authority and its basis in the social contract. He argues that the legality of international law and constitutional law are integral to the main tasks of philosophy of law, and that legal theory must attend both to the politics of legal space and to the way in which law provides us with a 'public conscience'.

Postmodern Philosophy as a Form of Human Reaction to Legal Positivism Concerning the Criminal Justice System in Indonesia

The study of Philosophy of Law is developing rapidly from time to time as we know that there are many schools of Philosophy of Law that are believed and used in a particular place, time, and adherents. Philosophy of Law, nowadays a school growing very fast is Postmodern Philosophy of Law. The postmodern flow of legal philosophy as a reaction to the flow of Positivism Legal Philosophy. Postmodernism's thinking about law is that legal truth is not particular, absolute, and objective, but relative, plural, consensual. This thinking often raises the pros and cons among experts. Therefore, this study tries to increase the flow of postmodern philosophy as a form of human reaction to legal positivism concerning the criminal justice system in Indonesia. This study uses a qualitative approach with a literature review method. The results of the study indicate that the criminal law system in Indonesia is unable to accommodate the purpose of the law, namely justice, because the criminal law system in Indonesia always considers justice based on the fulfilment of written law in which everyone applies a rule of law that is ultimately the same. Therefore, the author expresses Postmodern Philosophy as a creative legal justice breakthrough that is heterogeneous or combines various elements in everyday human life such as social, legal, cultural, psychological, political, educational, etc.

Utrata legitymizacji prawa według koncepcji Ronalda Dworkina

The aim of the paper is to analyse the answer that Dworkin’s philosophy of law provides to the following question: what is the threshold of wickedness of the legal order that excuses citizens from the moral obligation to obey the law? This is not a problem of civil disobedience (which only contests a particular decision of making or applying the law), but a situation in which the whole political-legal system is the object of moral contestation. The task will be carried out in three steps. In the first one, I will outline Dworkin’s theory of political obligation, situating it in the broader framework of the debate on this obligation. In the second step, I will analyse one of the main elements of this theory, namely the legitimacy of the legal order. As a third step, I will draw attention to a rather — as it seems — surprising similarity between Dworkin’s argumentation and Radbruch’s formula.

Development of Ideas of Philosophy of Law in the Ancient East

Any science striving for the creative development of its content cannot be indifferent to its past, to the history of its ideas, discoveries, and conclusions. This idea is entirely related to the philosophy of law - one of the most ancient sciences of law. With the development of humankind, with the formation of the first states, there is a gradual departure from mythology, which is being replaced by philosophy and religion as forms of social consciousness. Traditions of human life are fixed in their norms. Among the norms, the norms of law also function. In the ancient East states, in which powerful theocratic monarchies took shape, the first philosophical and legal views were also formed. The peculiarity of the development of the coun- tries of the Ancient East, when the state became the owner of the land, slaves, etc., leaves its imprint on the formation of political doctrines about the state aimed at substantiating the despotism and omnipotence of the monarch.

Culture, Law and War: On the Feasibility of the Project of «Eternal Peace», or on Some Methodological Issues of the Philosophy of Law

The aim of the article is to continue the study of law as a cultural phenomenon, in this case as an introduction to the problems of the XXVIII World Congress on the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy “Peace Based on Human Rights”. It is offered as an opportunity for additional substantiation of the idea of eternal peace (I. Kant) from the position of a culturological approach as one of the methodological tools of the philosophy of law. The concept developed by the author makes it possible to appeal to the ideal structures of consciousness not only in a purely epistemological aspect and phenomenological context, but also based on the ontological foundations of moral and legal culture. Thus, it becomes obvious and necessary to distinguish between anthropological and culturological approaches to substantiate the removal of the very concept of war beyond the boundaries of culture into the sphere of the unacceptable, what qualifies as a crime. Such a process of human development as a cultural development is natural in the sense of acquiring proper human qualities – it is overcoming the animal component of man (Aristotle and others). The philosophical and ideological foundations of this direction of development are the concepts that have received legal formalization primarily in the concept of human rights. The cultural form of overcoming the animal (in the cultural sense – criminal) principle in a person is play, which has found embodiment in various forms of agonal interaction, primarily in sports, as well as in art. Law as a formulation of the rules of cultural interaction becomes a necessary condition for survival, and the extension of this (culturological) principle to humanity (as a common destiny) makes the anthropological approach, in the form in which it is interpreted in modern (domestic) jurisprudence, limited and partial not only in a logical, but also in a humanitarian sense. The necessity of understanding the logical correlation of the concepts of “privilege” and “social parasitism” with the concept of “war” is shown. The transfer of “war” (regardless of interpretations and definitions) beyond the boundaries of culture (or truly human relationships) becomes necessary, as well as understanding the role of law in ensuring such a state of humanity.

John Ayotunde Isola Bewaji. The Rule of Law and Governance in Indigenous Yoruba Society: A Study in African Philosophy of Law. Lexington Books, 2016, 282 pages

Review of John Ayotunde Isola Bewaji's The Rule of Law and Governance in Indigenous Yoruba Society: A Study in African Philosophy of Law. Lexington Books, 2016, 282 pages.

The Legal Status of an Individual in Russian Scientific, Political and Legal Doctrines

The article explores the notion and peculiarities of the legal status of the individual in the Russian scientific, political and legal doctrines in the context of Philosophy of Law. In the given research, the author, based on the study of the materials of the history of legal-political thought, not only reveals the peculiarities of the legal status of the individual in the Philosophy of Law but also implements versatile, holistic, systematic (methodical) analysis of content and of the concept “legal status of the individual”. Summing up the investigated issues, the author came to the conclusion that the scientific views and developments of Russian jurists (from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century) had a tremendous impact on the development of the legal status of the individual, and civil society, as well as the relationship between the state and the individual. Therefore, theoretical and practical research of the problems of the development of the legal status of the individual in the works of famous Russian jurists in the context of the philosophy of law makes it possible to understand the current situation of human rights in the theoretical and legal, and even constitutional and legal aspect.

The Influence of the Ruling Elite on Political Activity in the Conditions of Destructuring the Essence of the Philosophy of Law

Different policy actors have different influences on the process. Most do not directly participate in political life: a particular layer of people called the political elite is more likely to get involved in it. From a philosophical point of view, the political elite is mainly defined as a minority of society, a somewhat independent, relatively privileged group (or a set of groups) that has the appropriate psychological, social and political qualities and is directly involved in the formation and implementation of political decisions related to the use of state power or influence on it. The main goal of the article is to characterise the negative influence of the ruling elite on the formation of political activity in the context of revealing its possibilities of destructuring the essence of the philosophy of law itself. The methodology was based on the main historical and theoretical research methods that made it possible to achieve the set goal. As a result of the study, the main elements of the negative influence of the ruling elite were characterised, its place in the philosophy of law was determined and which destructuring consequences it has.