Author : Trevor N. Wedman
Publisher : Mohr Siebeck
ISBN 13 : 316161691X
Total Pages : 191 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (616 download)
Book Synopsis Inverting the Norm by : Trevor N. Wedman
Download or read book Inverting the Norm written by Trevor N. Wedman and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 2022-11-21 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Trevor N. Wedman seeks to understand the key assumptions underlying modern legal theory. Going back to Hobbes, but also making use of the developments in the theory of action and language philosophy over the past century, he breaks down the static conception of the state into one dependent on the actions and reflections of individuals, i.e., its citizens. He develops a social ontological theory of the law, in which the law is not taken as a mere given, but as an institutional fact. He criticizes both the Kelsenian conception of the Basic Norm and the Hartian notion of the Rule of Recognition as failing to account for the agency of individuals. The author turns to the work of one of Kelsen's contemporaries, Felix Somlo, in order to develop an alternative conception of the law that operates not from the top down, but from the bottom up. In this way, the law itself comes into focus as that which results from the reasoned jurisprudential reflection on the reality of meanings and actions.