The Legal Relation
Legal Theory after Legal Positivism

This book offers a conceptual reconstruction of the legal relation on the basis of a critique of legal positivism.

Alexander Somek (Author)

9781316648001, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 12 October 2017

220 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.2 cm, 0.31 kg

'With this bold and provocative book, Somek brilliantly reimagines legal positivism. Every legal philosopher must read this book. The argument is imaginative, penetrating, and ultimately convincing.' Dennis Patterson, Board of Governors Professor of Law, Rutgers Law School, Camden, New Jersey

What is law? The usual answer is that the law is a system of norms. But this answer gives us at best half of the story. The law is a way of relating to one another. We do not do this as lovers or friends and not as people who are interested in obtaining guidance from moral insight. In a legal context, we are cast as 'character masks' (Marx), for example, as 'buyer' and 'seller' or 'landlord' and 'tenant'. We expect to have our claims respected simply because the law has given us rights. We do not want to give any other reason for our behavior than the fact that we have a legal right. Backing rights up with coercive threats indicates that we are willing to accept legal obligations unwillingly. This book offers a conceptual reconstruction of the legal relation on the basis of a critique of legal positivism.

Introduction. The pursuit of theory
1. Late legal positivism
2. Legality and irony
3. Legal science and the common law
4. The legal relation
5. Equality, freedom and dignity
6. The quest for agency.

Subject Areas: Jurisprudence & philosophy of law [LAB], Jurisprudence & general issues [LA], Law [L]