The Ideal Dimension of Law

2021 ◽  
pp. 83-106
Author(s):  
Robert Alexy

Alexy’s thesis that law has an ideal dimension is essentially based on the argument that law necessarily raises a claim to correctness that includes a claim to moral correctness. John Finnis has contested the necessity of this connection between law and a claim with moral content. One implication of the claim to correctness is the Radbruch Formula, which says that extreme injustice is no law. Finnis also criticizes this formula. In this chapter arguments against Finnis’s two critical points are presented. This is further elaborated into a system of the institutionalization of reason that comprises not only the Radbruch Formula but also the special case thesis, human rights, democracy, and principles theory.

Author(s):  
Robert Alexy

The main theme of the article is ideal dimension of law. Author argue for a dual nature thesis – which contends that law necessarily comprises both a real or factual dimension and an ideal or critical dimension – and demonstrates how the ideal dimension (which refers primarily to moral correctness) implies the truth of non-positivism. The key provisions of the conception represented in article are substantiated in a polemic with other well-known representative of non-positivism – John Finnis. Particular attention is paid to determine relation between the real and ideal dimensions of law, which involves answering five questions. First, is there an outermost border of law? Second, is legal argumentation based exclusively on authoritative reasons or does it also include non-authoritative reasons? Third, what is the relation between human rights and legal systems? Forth, is democracy to be understood exclusively as a decision procedure or also as a form of discourse? Fifth, do legal system comprise only rules expressing a real “ought” or also principles expressing an “ideal ought”? These five questions are answered by the following five theses: the first with the Radbruch formula; he second with the special case thesis; the third with the thesis that constitutional rights are to be understood as attempts to positivize human rights; the fourth with the deliberative model of democracy; and the fifth with principles theory. All five theses turn on the same point: the claim to correctness.


2001 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-226
Author(s):  
JOSEPH C. d'ORONZIO

The ideal of universal human rights is arguably the most potent moral concept marking the modern world. Its accelerated fruition in the last half of the twentieth century has created a powerful political force, laying the groundwork for future generations to extend and apply. Whereas anything resembling international legal status for human rights had to wait for the post-Nazi era, the bold proclamations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948) loosened a revolutionary force with endless potential for application to the full range of human endeavors. The roots of this movement can be traced to each and every era in which the vulnerable and powerless sought justification to oppose arbitrary domination. Its roots are, therefore, deep and wide.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-36
Author(s):  
Roger Raupp Rios

Examina-se de modo crítico a teoria da lei natural, de John Finnis, e sua defesa contra a possibilidade jurídica de reconhecimento do direito ao casamento entre pessoas do mesmo sexo, a partir de dois pontos de vista: a consistência interna da do referencial finnisiano e sua adequação diante do debate sobre direitos humanos. Examinam-se também as alegações associadas à defesa finnisiana, desde a proeminência de uma dita moral majoritária e da ofensa aos sentimentos públicos, até preocupações com a “promoção da homossexualidade”, suas consequências pretensamente prejudiciais aos menores e a fragilização da instituição do casamento. Apontam-se seus limites e sua incompatibilidade em face dos ideais democráticos que suplantaram os projetos nazi-fascistas no século XX, tomando como caso emblemático a decisão da Suprema Corte dos Estados Unidos no caso “Obergefell vs. Hodges”.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
A.Ahsin Thohari

Abstract: Pancasila is the ideal of the state (staatsidee). It also serves as legal ideal (rechtsidee), fundamental of philosophy (philosofische grondslag), fundamental state norm (staatsfundamentalnorm), and view of life (weltanschauung). It is a flexible ideology that can be drawn, pressed, and broaden to cover almost all circumstances. The perspective and mindset forming the constitution concerning human rights, and citizen constitutional rights had changed due to the changes in worldview attitudes, internationalism, and cosmopolitanism about human and constitutional rights. The constitution in Indonesia had changed several times. However, the provision of the civil rights in the Indonesian constitutions or known as constitutional rights were not eliminated in the 1945 Constitution (since august 18th 1945), the 1949 Union Republic of Indonesia Constitution, the 1950 Temporary Constitution, the 1945 constitution (after the President Decree in July 5th,1959) and 1945 constitution after amendment. Pancasila, also known as five principles, has the function as the bedrock of Indonesia. However, as a philosophical principle, Pancasila can interpret in myriad perspective, potentially used for multiple purposes. Abstrak: Pancasila sebagai cita negara (staatsidee). Pancasila yang juga berfungsi sebagai cita hukum (rechtsidee), dasar filsafat (philosofische grondslag), norma fundamental negara (staatsfundamentalnorm), dan pandangan hidup (weltanschauung). Pancasila adalah ideologi yang bersifat fleksibel yang dapat ditarik, ditekan, dan dilebarkan untuk mencakup hampir semua keadaan. Cara pandang dan pola pikir pembentuk Undang-Undang Dasar (UUD) terhadap Hak Asasi Manusia, konstitusi, dan hak-hak konstitusional warga negara mengalami perubahan yang diakibatkan oleh perubahan sikap-sikap pandangan dunia, internasionalisme dan kosmopolitanisme tentang HAM dan hak konstitusional. Konstitusi di Indonesia telah mengalami beberapa kali perubahan, namun ketentuan-ketentuan tentang hak-hak warga negara dalam konstitusi-konstitusi Indonesia atau yang lebih dikenal dengan hak konstitusional tidak pernah hilang, baik dalam UUD 1945 yang berlaku mulai 18 Agustus 1945, Konstitusi RIS 1949, UUDS 1950, UUD 1945 setelah Dekrit Presiden tanggal 5 Juli 1959, dan UUD 1945 setelah Perubahan. Pancasila, yang juga dikenal sebagai lima prinsip, berfungsi sebagai landasan negara Indonesia. Namun, sebagai prinsip filosofis, pancasila dapat ditafsikan ke berbagai perspektif yang dapat digunakan untuk berbagai tujuan. Kata Kunci: Cita Hukum (Rechtsidee), Pancasila, Hak Konstitusional


Author(s):  
Xudong FANG

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.本文由兩個部分構成,第一部分闡述了不反對同性婚姻合法化的理由,逐一討論了對同性婚姻合法化的五種反對意見,認為它們都不成立。第二部分論述了儒家推崇異性婚姻的原因,其主要考慮是同性婚姻不能像異性婚姻那樣可以提供倫理的完整性。作者強調,作為公民權利,同性婚姻可以被自由追求,但作為儒家則以異性婚姻為婚姻的理想模式。前者事關權利,後者事關“善”,有各自的界限,不得逾越。This paper consists of two parts. In the first part, the author refutes, one by one, five objections to the legalization of same-sex marriage, including arguments grounded in naturalness, origin, reductio ad absurdum, compromising traditional marriage, and Jiang Qing’s doctrine of particular human rights. The strongest reason for advocating the legalization of same-sex marriage is the doctrine of equal rights. As contemporary people, we have no reason to deny that all individuals have equal rights. The second part discusses why Confucianism prefers heterosexual marriage. The main consideration is that same-sex marriages cannot provide ethical integrity, as heterosexual marriages do. The author emphasizes that, as a civil right, same-sex marriage can be pursued freely, but for a Confucian, heterosexual marriage is the ideal mode of marriage. The former concerns what is “right,” whereas the latter relates to what is “good.” There is an insurmountable boundary between right and good.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 423 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.


Author(s):  
Joseph Chan

This chapter contends that the idea of human rights is compatible with the Confucian understanding of ethics and society, but that in the ideal society people will be guided by precepts of benevolence and virtues rather than by considerations of human rights. Thus, human rights do not play an important practical role in an ideal society, for the same reason that rites are not important in the Grand Union. However, in nonideal situations, where virtuous relationships break down and mediation fails to reconcile conflicts, human rights can become a powerful fallback apparatus for the vulnerable to protect their legitimate interests against exploitation. The importance of human rights lies in its instrumental function. But unlike liberalism, Confucian ethics would not take human rights as constitutive of human worth or dignity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 501-520 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary M Boyd ◽  
Emma M Schmidt ◽  
Scott D Ramsey ◽  
Roy S Baty

Summary As modern hydrodynamic codes increase in sophistication, the availability of realistic test problems becomes increasingly important. In gas dynamics, one common unrealistic aspect of most test problems is the ideal gas assumption, which is unsuited to many real applications, especially those involving high pressure and speed metal deformation. Our work considers the collapsing cavity and converging shock test problems, showing to what extent the ideal gas assumption can be removed from their specification. It is found that while most materials simply do not admit simple (that is scaling) solutions in this context, there are infinite-dimensional families of materials which do admit such solutions. We characterize such materials, derive the appropriate ordinary differential equations and analyze the associated nonlinear eigenvalue problem. It is shown that there is an inherent tension between boundedness of the solution, boundedness of its derivatives and the entropy condition. The special case of a constant-speed cavity collapse is considered and found to be heuristically possible, contrary to common intuition. Finally, we give an example of a concrete non-ideal collapsing cavity scaling solution based on a recently proposed pseudo-Mie–Gruneisen equation of state.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
L.E. Sjöberg ◽  
E.W. Grafarend ◽  
M.S.S. Joud

AbstractA geosynchronous satellite orbits the Earth along a constant longitude. A special case is the geostationary satellite that is located at a constant position above the equator. The ideal position of a geostationary satellite is at the level of zero gravity, i.e. at the geocentric radius where the gravitational force of the Earth equals the centrifugal force. These forces must be compensated for several perturbing forces, in particular for the lunisolar tides. Considering that the gravity field of the Earth varies not only radially but also laterally, this study focuses on the variations of zero gravity not only on the equator (for geostationary satellites) but also for various latitudes. It is found that the radius of a geostationary satellite deviates from its mean value of 42164.2 km only within ±2 m, mainly due to the spherical harmonic coefficient J


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