The Existence and Life of Law

Abstract

From a commonsense view we usually accept that the claim “there is a dog in this garden” implies the existence of this dog. If instead of a dog we are dealing with black holes or quarks, our senses do not play the same role. We usually use instruments that mediate between the object and us. What if we move from this, let's say, natural world to the legal normative field? Unlike the task of Legal Dogmatics the task of Physics, for example, is not both descriptive and normative but only descriptive of what there is (or a selected part of it) although they “see” what there is through theories. In any case, Physicists do not try to “optimise” the laws of nature as legal scholars (sharing an internal point of view) do with the legal order.