Legal Monism
This book defends the theory of legal monism against dualism and pluralism. Whereas dualism holds that different bodies of law such as international and national law are entirely separate and pluralism argues that there are many potentially overlapping and heterarchical bodies of law, monism considers all law to form part of one unitary and hierarchically ordered legal order, be it international, EU, or national law. To this end, this book will use the pure theory of law of the Vienna School of Jurisprudence, which has—since its inception in the first half of the twentieth century—been largely ignored by legal theorists. On the basis of philosophical/epistemological, legal, and moral/political arguments, it will argue in favour of monism under the primacy of international law, i.e. that in cases of normative conflicts, international and EU law prevail over national law, and thereby restore the respect for international legal cooperation. In other words, it will argue that only this version of monism takes the law and the concept of legal validity seriously; that it can better describe and explain the relationship between legal orders and resolve normative conflicts than dualism and pluralism; and that it has a superior moral dimension, which can help bring about a cosmopolitan legal order under global democracy and peace.