Legal Sciences and the Problem of the Political: The Perspective of Critical Jurisprudence Cover Image

Nauki prawne wobec problemu polityczności: zagadnienia wybrane z perspektywy jurysprudencji krytycznej
Legal Sciences and the Problem of the Political: The Perspective of Critical Jurisprudence

Author(s): Rafał Mańko
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Philosophy of Law
Published by: Stowarzyszenie Filozofii Prawa i Filozofii Społecznej – Sekcja Polska IVR
Keywords: legal science; the political; antagonism; analytical legal theory; legal dogmatics; critical legal theory

Summary/Abstract: The growing interest in the connections between legal phenomena and the political (das Politische, le politique) justifies an analysis of the problem of the relationship of legal sciences towards the political. The article focuses on two juridical sub-disciplines: analytical legal theory and legal dogmatics, and the analysis is conducted from the perspective of critical jurisprudence, a juristic application of critical theory. Towards this end, first the concept of ‘the political’ is defined, along the lines of Chantal Mouffe, as a dimension of antagonism, which lies at the foundation of any society. The political, understood in this way, must be differentiated both from ‘politics’ and from ‘policies’. As far as analytical legal theory is concerned, the article claims that it is programmatically (yet tacitly) political, as it affirms the juridical form as such, abstracting from its concrete content. As far as legal dogmatics is concerned, the article claims, following Sawa Frydman, that the dogmatician, despite his declared apoliticality, when performing a doctrinal interpretation of law, makes in fact decisions which are not only interpretive, but also political ones, setting subsequent stages in the antagonistic struggles within society.

  • Issue Year: 18/2018
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 38-50
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: Polish