One Myth of the Classical Natural Law Theory: Reflecting on the "Thin" View of Legal Positivism

Veronica Rodriguez-Blanco, Pilar Zambrano
2018 Ratio Juris  
Much controversy has emerged on the demarcation between legal positivism and non-legal positivism with some authors calling for a ban on the -as they see it-nonsensical labelling of legal philosophical debates. We agree with these critics; simplistic labelling cannot replace the work of sophisticated and sound argumentation. In this paper we do not use the term 'legal positivism' as a simplistic label but identify a specific position which we consider to be the most appealing and plausible view
more » ... on legal positivism. This is the view advocated by Gardner in his paper 'Legal Positivism: 5 1 =2 Myths' (Gardner 2001, 199), where he carefully scrutinises the most convincing and unifying postulates of legal positivism, which he calls "the thin view". The study shows that this thin view presupposes an empirical conception of action that is untenable and implausible since it makes acts of engagement with the law unintelligible to an observer of such acts. * This article is a result of the Research Project (2014-2015) "Constructivismo, raz on y derecho: Una aproximaci on desde la tesis de la determinaci on" (II), 108 Concurso interno de proyectos de investigaci on, Universidad Austral, Argentina.
doi:10.1111/raju.12196 fatcat:6kp56xpuircuvdufqpxf45s73u