Alexy und die Ansprüche des Rechts. Eine kritische Bestandsaufnahme

Abstract

This paper aims to assess Robert Alexy’s latest contributions to the debate that has followed his fundamental critique of legal positivism in The Argument from Injustice. I discuss several ways to understand the “claim to correctness” Alexy is attributing to the law, concluding, however, that none supports his own conclusion that the law nec- essarily raises a moral claim. Furthermore, I show that even though Joseph Raz argues – more convincingly – for the seemingly similar conclusion that the law necessarily claims legitimate political authority, this latter claim amounts to something quite dif- ferent. I thus conclude that Alexy and Raz disagree not so much about the implications of law’s moral claims rather than about what it means to talk about “claims of law”.