Law, Truth, and Reason

Grounded in linguistic philosophy and Carnapian semantics, this book's innovative contribution to analytical jurisprudence also addresses the issues of institutional philosophy, social pragmatism, and legal principles as envisioned by Dworkin, among others.

This book is an innovative contribution to analytical jurisprudence.
It is mainly based on the distinct premises of linguistic philosophy and Carnapian semantics, but also addresses the issues of institutional philosophy, social pragmatism, and legal principles as envisioned by Dworkin, among others. WróblewskiŽs three ideologies (bound/free/legal and rational) and MakkonenŽs three situations (isomorphic/semantically vague/normative gap) of judicial decision-making are further developed by means of 10 frames of legal analysis as discerned by the author. With the philosophical theories of truth serving as a reference, the frames of legal analysis include the isomorphic theory of law (Wittgenstein, Makkonen), the coherence theory of law (Alexy, Peczenik, Dworkin), the new rhetoric and legal argumentation theory (Perelman, Aarnio), social consequentialism (Posner), natural law theory (Fuller, Finnis), and the sequential model of legal reasoning by Neil MacCormick and the Bielefelder Kreis.
At the end, some key issues of legal metaphysics are addressed, like the notion of legal systematics and the future potential of the analytical approach in jurisprudence.

1. Introduction. - 2. An Isomorphic Theory of Law: A Relation of Structural Similarity between the Two Fact-Constellations Compared. - 3. Coherence Theory of Law: Shared Congruence among Arguments Drawn from the Institutional and Societal Sources of Law. - 4. Between the Evident and the Irrational : The New Rhetoric and Legal Argumentation Theory. - 5. Philosophical Pragmatism: Law, Judged in Light of Its Social Effects. - 6. Analytical Legal Positivism: Retracing the Original Intentions of the Legislator under Legal Exegesis. - 7. Legal Realism: The Law in Action, Not the Law in Books, as the Subject Matter of Legal Analysis. - 8. Legal Conventionalism: Law as an Expression of Collective Intentionality. - 9. Die Rechtssätze in ihrem systematischen Zusammenhang zu erkennen The Thrust of Legal Formalism. - 10. Natural Law Philosophy: Law as a Subordinate to Social Justice and Political Morality in Society. - 11. Radical Decisionism: Social Justice on a Strictly Contextualist Basis. - 12. Intermission. - 13. Law and Metaphysics.