Interaction between Law and Morality: The Philosophical Construct

This paper discusses the jurisprudential analysis of law and legislation in a modern state. The main objective of this analysis is to ascertain the role and status of morality in the modern constitutional setup. Various views of legal positivism will be probed in light of the role of morality in codification. The study will comprise upon doctrinal analysis of various positivist writers of the 20th century. Contemporary elements of law in the modern nation-state system are more pro-positivist in approach rather than moral. In the light of these elements, the reader will understand the scope of morality especially religious morality in the contemporary legal framework. A comparative analysis will explain the standards of both theories of legal positivism and naturalist interpretation of laws.

Revitalization of Radbruch's formula in the theory of Robert Alexy

In trying to unravel the quandary of the concept of law, Robert Alexy stipulated some sort of an eclectic non-postivistic theory of law which consists of three arguments: from Correctness, Injustice and Principles. He believes in the possibility of a rational justification of objective morality, which he incorporates into the aforementioned three arguments, claiming that law and morality are conceptually connected. This paper will question the limitations of such an approach. The Argument from Correctness states that no system can be considered to have a legal nature if it does not claim correctness, while it will be seen as defective if it does claim, but does not fulfill correctness. On the other hand, the Argument from Injustice is an addition to the previous thesis, through the revitalization of the Radbruch Intolerability and Disavowal Formula – subtracting legal nature from extremely unjust norms. The paper evaluates main objections pointed towards such a conception of law, as well as general problems which may occur within the Arguments from Correctness and Injustice.

The Distinction Between Law qnd Morality in Legal Positivism: Socio-Philosophical Dimension

The article deals with the main conceptions of the relationship between law and morality in legal positivism. The research relevance is caused by legal positivism which is influential and dynamically developing in both domestic and foreign science. The purpose of the study is to consider the features that describe the positivist approach to the differentiation between legal and moral regulation in the context of the dialectical interaction of individual and social principles in society. It presupposes the establishment of both general and special in legal positivism’s views regarding the interaction of these social regulators. Special attention is paid to the consideration of not only positive aspects of the proposed concepts but also the difficulty that arise within legal positivism. The research methodology is based on the dialectical method, the method of analysis, comparative and historical methods. These methods allow us to analyze in a historical perspective the development of views on the relationship between law and morality in legal positivism, to analyze specific features in the visions of the most influential philosophers of this doctrine, to identify common ideas that unite the philosophers considered. As a result of the conducted research, it is argued that legal positivism is characterized by the correlation of law and morality as sovereign socio-normative systems that closely interact in the structure of society, but do not have the necessary connection that mutually determines their content. The sovereign nature of legal and moral regulation implies the search for models of their interaction. It is important to determine the demarcation line of the spheres and limits of each social regulator. As a result, it is concluded that there are three possible models of this interaction, and the consequences of their implementation in society. In particular, it is determined that law and morality within the structure of society can be either indifferent to each other or have identical content realized through both regulation forms or be in relation to a contradiction adducing to a social conflict.

Kant and the Law of War

The past two decades have seen renewed scholarly and popular interest in the law and morality of war. Positions that originated in the late Middle Ages through the seventeenth century have received more sophisticated philosophical elaboration. Although many contemporary writers draw on ideas that figure prominently in Kant’s moral philosophy, his explicit discussions of war have not been brought into their proper place within these discussions and debates. Kant argues that a special morality governs the permissible use of force because of war’s distinctive immorality. He characterizes war as barbaric, because in war, might makes right—which side prevails does not depend on who is in the right. The very thing that makes war wrongful also provides the appropriate standard for evaluating the conduct of war, and the only basis for law governing war.

Reflections on the COVID-19 Restrictions in Belgium and the Rule of Law

The paper examines the legality and legitimacy of Belgium’s COVID-19-related restrictions in light of national and international guidelines. Its discussion proceeds from the most vital characteristic of any law-based state: the government being subject to standards of substantive and procedural legality, even during a pandemic. After this, the effect of the crisis on the Belgian Rechtsstaat is examined, with special emphasis on the functioning of the separation of powers and on the unprecedented predominance of the executive power, alongside the legal basis for the latter’s actions. The author concludes that the Belgian measures against the virus’s spread have failed to meet the cumulative requirements of the rule-of-law test. Discussion then turns to the possibly huge ramifications for some wider debates in the field of philosophy of law, both for classic topoi ( such as law and morality or utilitarianism) and for contemporary current debates such as constitutionalism, sovereignty, and juristocracy. In its concluding remarks, the paper raises issues of the unspoken social contract between the people and the state: will the restrictions amid the pandemic go down in history as a singular, unique event or, instead, as a step on the slippery slope toward permanent crisis management in the name of a new sanitary order?

Legal Morality in Fullerian Jurisprudence

The American legal philosopher Lon L. Fuller profoundly advanced a sophisticated morality conception of law through his argument for thesis of Legal Morality (LM). In particular, he adumbrated a novelist idea of “ internal morality of law” that would enable the transformation of the sophisticated morality conception of law into a conception idea of law and morality connection while simultaneously providing an explanation of the new and fresh thesis of legal morality. Contrary to the common (and mostly legal positivism) view, Fuller argues that it is not only the case that the (external) morality determines what the level of any connection between law and morality, rather it is also the idea of law in itself regenerates the idea of morality (internally). However, it is argued that in spite of the fact that Fuller suggested a sophisticated account of interconnection between law and morality, he fails to develop the complexities of the (morality) connection to the law in systemic way. What does he miss in his argument of the connection between law and morality? This study will advance the view that there are more than one way to make a connection between law and morality. Some of these connections can be named here: the morality of duty, the morality of legal subject, the morality of legal official, the morality of legal end, the morality of legal content and the internal and external morality of law. This study argues that each type of these connections between law and morality importantly has many effective outcomes in term of conception and implication of law, which Fuller did not tell us. In Fuller’s work, one can grasp the soundness of this connection in a variety levels. Yet, surprisingly to Fuller’s own works, this study will show that Fuller’s thesis of legal molarity must be expanded and justified on the different ground. In doing so, this study argues not only to make sense of Fuller’s legal morality, but it also redirects the systemic way to bring all pieces of Fuller’s claim of legal morality together and to seek the rationality beyond the legal.

Utopien des Übergangs. Don Quixote und Zarathustra

The subject of this article points beyond a purely literary or literary-historical approach. The question is, whether and how a human being is able to change the (social) conditions of their life by changing himself through transition into another form of existence. In order to overcome established (social) conditions and one’s self, it is necessary to begin with a vision, a utopian dream. Those who pursue the utopian dream of overcoming their current (social) conditions must acknowledge their own good and evil, that is, their position vis-a-vis equality and justice, law and morality. The person itself, and its personality, is revealed in the relation between the utopia of changing its current way of life and its social reality. The ultimate question is: what is the essence of humanity, the ecce homo? Both the transition into a new form of being and the utopian dream differ decisively in Don Quixote and Zarathustra. It is not my concern to compare them as literary figures.

Intelligent VR-AR for Natural Disasters Management

Considering the significance of improving natural disasters emergency management and recognizing that catastrophe scenes are almost impossible to reconstruct in real life, forcing persons to experience real hazards violates both law and morality, in this research is presented an engine for Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality (VR/AR) that works enhancing human capacities for prevention, response and recovery of natural phenomena effects. The selected novel techniques have very advantageous qualities to overcome the inconveniences detected in the most recent seismic devastating experience in Mexico City, the Sept 19th, 2017, earthquake M7.2: total collapse of more than 230 buildings, partial fall of 7 000 houses, 370 people were killed, and over 6,000 were injured. VR and AR provide researchers, government authorities and rescue teams with tools for recreating the emergencies entirely through computer-generated signals of sight, sound, and touch, when using VR, and overlays of sensory signals for experiences a rich juxtaposition of virtual and real worlds simultaneously, when AR is applied. The gap between knowledge and action is filled with visual, aural, and kinesthetic immersive experiences that poses a possibility to attend to the population in danger in a deeply efficient way, never experimented before.

Utopien des Übergangs. Don Quixote und Zarathustra

The subject of this article points beyond a purely literary or literary-historical approach. The question is, whether and how a human being is able to change the (social) conditions of their life by changing himself through transition into another form of existence. In order to overcome established (social) conditions and one’s self, it is necessary to begin with a vision, a utopian dream. Those who pursue the utopian dream of overcoming their current (social) conditions must acknowledge their own good and evil, that is, their position vis-à-vis equality and justice, law and morality. The person itself, and its personality, is revealed in the relation between the utopia of changing its current way of life and its social reality. The ultimate question is: what is the essence of humanity, the ecce homo? Both the transition into a new form of being and the utopian dream differ decisively in Don Quixote and Zarathustra. It is not my concern to compare them as literary figures.