This book presents the theory of the validity of legal norms, aimed at the practice of law, in particular the jurisdiction of the constitutional courts. The postpositivist concept of the validity of statutory law, grounded on a critical analysis of the basic theories of legal validity elaborated up to now, is introduced. In the first part of the book a contemporary German nonpositivist conception of law developed by Ralf Dreier and Robert Alexy is analysed in order to answer the question whether the juristic concept of legal validity should include moral standards or criteria. In the second part, a postpositivist concept of legal validity and an innovative model of validity discourse, based on the juristic presumption of the validity of legal norms, are proposed. The book is a work on analytical legal theory, written from a postpositivist, detached point of view.

In this study, the author identifies six types of judicial precedent-ideology and are tests them against judicial experiences in various countries.

Crossing the usual boundaries of abstract legal theory, this book considers actual charter systems - legal systems with explicitly posited moral-political rights - as well as cases in constitutional adjudication. It shows the worth of careful reflection on methodological and meta-theoretical issues for a comprehensive account of a present-day legal system which is fast becoming the norm.

In the study of forms of legal reasoning logic and argumentation theory long followed separate tracks. Recently, however, developments in Artificial Intelligence and Law have paved the way for overcoming this separation. Logic has widened its scope to defeasible argumentation, and informal accounts of analogy and dialectics have inspired the construction of computer programs. Thus the prospect is emerging of an integrated logical and dialectical account of legal argument, adding to the understanding of legal reasoning, and providing a formal basis for computer tools that assist and mediate legal debates while leaving room for human initiative.

The JURIX conferences are an established international forum for academics, practitioners, government and industry to present and discuss advanced research at the interface between law and computer science. Subjects addressed in this book cover all aspects of this diverse field: theoretical – focused on a better understanding of argumentation, reasoning, norms and evidence; empirical – targeted at a more general understanding of law and legal texts in particular; and practical papers aimed at enabling a broader technical application of theoretical insights. This book presents the proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems: JURIX 2014, held in Kraków, Poland, in December 2014. The book includes the 14 full papers, 8 short papers, 6 posters and 2 demos – the first time that poster submissions have been included in the proceedings. The book will be of interest to all those whose work involves legal theory, argumentation and practice and who need a current overview of the ways in which current information technology is relevant to legal practice.

This book grew out of the conviction that the original concepts of the Poznań School of Legal Theory are still perfectly suited for application today, in the era of moral pluralism and multicentric legal systems. Moreover, since we are in the midst of a period of heated disputes over the grounds of the normativity of law, and are confronting controversies about the basis for the legitimacy of court decisions, over the results of legal interpretation, and concerning the coherence of legal systems, it would seem that the legal-theoretical proposals put forward by the circle of Poznań legal theorists, supported as they are by firm methodological foundations, have not by any means lost their value.

Building on his contributions to institutional legal theory in Institutional Legal Facts of 1993 (Law and Philosophy Library, volume 18), the author presents a comprehensive theory of legal institutions. To that end, the initial theoretical approach, which mainly concentrated on problems connected with legal powers and legal acts (acts-in-law), is widened to allow for the development of a theory of legal judgements capable of accounting not only for enacted but also unwritten law (legal principles and customary law). With the use of the concept of institutional legal facts, the structure of legal institutions is analyzed in detail. In addition to that, a classification of legal institutions is provided. Extensive attention is given to logical, as well as doctrinal problems connected with a conception of legal validity as the mode of existence of legal conditions rather than as a value of legal norms similar to the truth of propositions. The study results in an elaborate conceptual framework for institutional analysis of positive law. In a final chapter the analytical potential of the framework is put to the test by applying it to the branch of public international law known as the `law of treaties'. Readership: Specialists in legal theory and lawyers interested in theoretical issues, particularly in linguistic approaches and questions related to the institutional nature of law.

1. Justice, Administration of. 2. Evidence, Criminal.

This influential book makes sense of abstract debates about the nature of law and the rule of law by situating them in the real-world context of apartheid-era South Africa. The new edition examines the transformation in South Africa since the end of apartheid, and the shift in debates surrounding the rule of law post 9/11.