Abstract As part this special issue titled “Law's Rule and the Rule of Law: Critical Dialogues with Gerald J. Postema,” this article addresses the argument Postema makes in chapter 14 of Law's Rule: The Nature, Value, and Viability of the Rule of Law , with its warning of the risks attendant on replacing legal judgment with artificial intelligence. While affirming Postema's concern that AI threatens the deliberative and participatory dimensions of law, the article challenges his strict dichotomy between human and computational reasoning. Drawing on the work of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and contemporary theorists like Grant and Wischik, it argues that machine learning reflects an inductive model of legal prediction already implicit in legal practice. The article explores whether law's normative authority is inherently human or functionally replicable and calls for a more nuanced inquiry into how AI might be integrated into legal systems without eroding their moral and democratic foundations.
Abstract This article presents a theoretical case for partial deformalisation of sentencing hearings, whereby the offender and the victim would be invited to add their particularistic perspectives on crime and punishment in unmediated nonhierarchical settings. It is argued that partial deformalisation would facilitate the realisation of different aims of criminal punishment, including retribution and appropriate leniency, rehabilitation for offenders, and restoration for victims. To support this argument, the article highlights under‐researched aspects of these aims of criminal punishment. It does so with reference to the distinction between general and radically particularistic claims about crime and punishment.
Abstract In 2007 Marcial Pons published in Spanish a debate between Joseph Raz, Robert Alexy, and Eugenio Bulygin that is now being made available in English in this special issue of Ratio Juris . This article revisits that debate by unpacking the way Raz conceives of the relation between a concept and the nature of a thing, on the premise that this is key to understanding what is here characterised as his “metaphysical proposal,” meaning the priority of metaphysical inquiry into the nature of law: We can only identify a concept as a concept of law by reference to law's essential properties. The explanatory direction runs from nature to concept, and in this sense Raz can be understood as rejecting the idea that an inquiry into the nature of law reduces to conceptual analysis.
Abstract This article critically examines the tendency to settle political disagreements through constitutional amendments rather than through majoritarian legislative processes. The analysis argues that this trend triggers a “substantive overdose,” that is, the weakening of democracy as a process that legitimizes substantive decisions through the participation of citizens as free and equal decision‐makers. This difficulty has two prongs: the first concerning legitimacy, the second agency. Constitutional amendments with substantive functions expand democracy's substantive core, compromising its ability to operate as a “procedural pact” that generates legitimate decisions protecting citizens’ equal liberty in the face of disagreement. Moreover, the judiciary's countermajoritarian power weakens citizens’ agency by reformulating their role from active decision‐makers to passive claimants and jeopardizes majority rule as a distinctive trait of democratic decision‐making. The article concludes by advocating for constitutional amendments that protect democracy's procedural core rather than enshrining substantive policy positions.
Abstract Ratio Juris is making available the English translation of a debate between Joseph Raz, Robert Alexy, and Eugenio Bulygin that had been previously published by Marcial Pons in Spanish in 2007. The debates focus on Raz's distinctive view of conceptual analysis and his argument that it is central to theories about the nature of law. The exchanges with Alexy and Bulygin focus on how open and “parochial” our concepts, including our concept of law, really are, and the connections between legal theory and legal practice.
Abstract More than a century ago, W. N. Hohfeld offered the most influential analysis of rights to date. However, his classification has rarely been received without criticism. Many of the objections to his framework stem from the longstanding debate between interest and will theories of rights. In this paper, I present an interpretation of Hohfeld's analysis that emphasises the institutional requirements necessary for it to be fully operative. I also argue that this alternative interpretation avoids the traditional objections raised within the interest vs. will theory debate. Finally, I examine the scope of application of Hohfeld's classification according to my institutional interpretation and discuss the functions it can effectively perform, particularly in light of legal certainty and the demands of the rule of law.
Abstract This article develops an expectation‐centred concept of legal certainty. It first reconstructs the notion of social expectation, distinguishing empirical from normative types and analysing their sources, reasonableness, and postdictive assessment. It defines legal certainty as the conformity of judicial decisions with the normative expectations shared by the majority of a relevant reference network; disappointment of those expectations generates legal uncertainty, while contexts lacking shared expectations remain indeterminate. The model isolates four analytic variables—(i) object of evaluation (single ruling or body of case law), (ii) the operative reference network, (iii) temporal standpoint ( ex ante or ex post ), and (iv) admissible content of expectations (formalistic versus informal). Combining these variables yields tailored submodels and measurable indicators. By mapping degrees of conformity rather than a binary state, the framework explains why observers anchored in different networks can reach divergent certainty judgments while remaining internally coherent.
Abstract This article introduces the current special issue on legal theory and conceptual analysis, a topic explored through the lens of a debate that in 2007 engaged Joseph Raz, Robert Alexy, and Eugenio Bulygin on the question of the relation between the concept and the nature of law. We set the stage for this debate by outlining a history of conceptual analysis around the question of what is meant by an idea or concept and what could count as an analysis of a concept, and whether the structure of concepts is definitional or paradigmatic. This overview draws a map of the methodological disputes which have shaped modern legal theory, and within which we can situate the debate among Raz, Alexy, and Bulygin. We conclude by noting that, despite their disagreements, these three thinkers all view conceptual analysis (and specifically the analysis of the concept of law) as central to the issue of the proper object of the theory of law.
Abstract This paper (appearing here for the first time in English) is part of a debate between Joseph Raz, Robert Alexy, and Eugenio Bulygin previously published in 2007 in Spanish by Marcial Pons and now featured in this special issue of Ratio Juris . In responding to Raz, Bulygin sets out his main points of disagreement with Raz on the question, Can there be a theory of law? Bulygin challenges Raz's view of legal theory as consisting of necessarily true propositions that explain the nature of law by picking out a set of essential properties independent of the concepts used to identify law. He argues, on the contrary, that the necessary or essential properties of a thing (and so of law) depend on the concept we use to refer to this thing (law), suggesting that legal theories accordingly yield a plurality of concepts rather than uncovering a single privileged concept of law.
Este artículo de investigación de corte descriptivo y expositivo tiene como propósito poner en contexto los resultados de una búsqueda bibliográfica sobre el conflicto armado y las prácticas pedagógicas y educativas que se llevan a cabo en instituciones educativas, en particular, las del nivel superior. A nivel metodológico se determinaron las ecuaciones de búsqueda relacionadas con los temas centrales del presente texto y que responden a los objetivos propuestos en la investigación. Al establecer cinco (5) categorías de análisis los resultados fueron muy amplios y frutíferos razón por lo cual en el presente texto aborda tres tópicos de ecuaciones que se consideran transversales a todas las categorías definidas: 1. Conflicto armado: conceptos, actores y escenarios. 2. Garantías políticas y no repetición: la dupla identidad y memoria y 3. Prácticas educativas y pedagógicas en el conflicto armado. Como hallazgos, se cuenta con un marco de referencia contextualizada en las instituciones educativas y analizadas desde las acciones de dicho tipo de instituciones. Como resultados, es claro que las Instituciones de Educación Superior desarrollan proyectos y programas en torno a la Paz, el conflicto, la convivencia, los Derechos Humanos, la inclusión y reconocimiento, no obstante, desde la revisión de literatura, es muy poca o nula la literatura que da cuenta del impacto social, ambiental y político que tiene dichos programas en las instituciones y su entorno local y regional.
Scientific journals in the social sciences are facing significant challenges due to the increasing and persistent use of Artificial Intelligence (Ai). These developments have generated novel ethical dilemmas, prompting this study to identify these challenges and assess their impact on academic integrity, with the aim of proposing potential ethical guidelines and policies. A qualitative-descriptive methodology is proposed, which will facilitate a historical-normative review coupled with a critical content analysis. The analysis centrally addresses copyright, contrasting it with automated authorship and natural language processing derived from the massive use of and access to data. This confrontation between copyright and scientific ethics calls into question fundamental concepts such as 'author,' 'creation,' and 'originality,' as well as the role of human agency and academic integrity. Furthermore, it raises serious doubts about the possibility of determining the origin of the data provided by AI.
This article aims to explore the role of testimony and its consequences for mental health within transitional justice scenarios, framed within the context of overcoming the Colombian armed conflict. Using a qualitative method under a phenomenological-hermeneutic paradigm, 10 semi-structured interviews were conducted with 2 men and 8 women over 18 years of age, all victims of the armed conflict residing in the metropolitan area of Aburra Valley and Eastern Antioquia, who have provided testimony in various transitional justice settings in Colombia (Historical Memory Center, processes under the Justice and Peace Law, Truth Commission, and Special Jurisdiction for Peace). The results reveal narratives stemming from life stories marked by trauma, the act of testifying as an exercise in reclaiming victims' voices and contributing to truth, and the therapeutic effects that emerge when individuals testify and engage in collective memory of pain. However, iatrogenic effects were also identified when testifying in certain state-led judicial or non-judicial settings, exposing processes of revictimization. The study concludes that continuous interdisciplinary support is necessary to accompany victims throughout their participation in transitional processes, ensuring the fulfillment of their rights to justice, truth, comprehensive reparation, and non-repetition.
This study sought to identify how meanings about resocialisation emerge in the discursive practice of a magistrate in an Execution Court in the state of Maranh & atilde;o, Brazil. In terms of methodological design, the research is a case study with a critical realist qualitative approach. As for the results, it was possible to identify the presence of five semantic blocks: 1) strong belief in resocialization, 2) repositioning of the magistrate as a producer and guarantor of resocialization, 3) resocialisation as a product of a collective journey or collectivisation of criminal responsibility, 4) recognition of the dignity of prisoners and 5) concurrence between discursive and extradiscursive conditions for the emergence of reintegration. Through these five semantic blocks, it was possible to conclude that the meanings of resocialisation are produced interdiscursively, so as to preserve elements of the Christian-evangelical religious discourse in the legal discourse, which end up impregnating the legal discourse with an implicit contradiction, through which reintegration is made possible at the cost of potential rights violations.
Legal communication is often criticized for being long-winded and difficult to understand. Access to justice is a fundamental right that can be hindered by language and the global phenomenon of using new communication techniques can be a solution. The article analyzes the use and receptiveness of plain language practices, more specifically visual law, within the Judiciary of the Brazilian state of Paran & aacute;. Firstly, bibliographical and documentary research is presented, with a descriptive objective, aimed at conceptual delimitation and a synthesized presentation of the normative regulation of the subject in Brazil. Next, the results of empirical research carried out with magistrates and their teams in the Judiciary of Paran & aacute; to assess the acceptance of visual law are presented and discussed. The conclusion was that, despite the potential acceptance for facilitating communication and democratizing knowledge, the challenge of the established legal and organizational culture and the confusion between simple information and the banal use of visual elements persist. Furthermore, the correct application of visual law requires multidisciplinarity and professionals from different areas of knowledge.
This paper describes the forms and types of violence committed against children and adolescents (NNA) in Medellin during the period 2020-2023. A qualitative methodological design with a socio-legal approach was employed, and two right-to-petition requests were submitted to the 25 Family Commissioners' Offices (CdeF) in the District. Three key factors emerged that provided greater clarity in describing and understanding the forms and types of violence, while also being identified as administrative transformations that influence the feasibility of broader changes in the special family protection framework: 1) violence against NNA underscores the need to recognize this population as constitutionally designated for special protection; 2) the concept of violence against NNA has replaced the term "child abuse"; and 3) violence against NNA constitutes a specific category of violence within the family environment, which in turn is a subset of violence as a central conceptual axis.
The objective of this article is to assess whether the Colombian legal system complies with international standards on the use of force, taking into account the various contexts of violence it faces. The research is conducted under a qualitative, descriptive approach using documentary analysis. The findings highlight that Colombia operates in a complex environment due to the presence of multiple armed groups, which necessitates a differentiated application of force based on the paradigms of law enforcement and the conduct of hostilities. It is concluded that, although there is coherence between the international and national legal frameworks, the latter is fragmented and lacks specific legislation to regulate it adequately.
Environmental displacement, driven by natural disasters, climate change, and environmental degradation, is rapidly escalating into a severe humanitarian crisis with global ramifications. This phenomenon, akin to displacement caused by armed conflict, poses intricate threats and vulnerabilities to human rights. Considering this pressing reality, broadening our conceptual framework to encompass the di- verse forms of environmental displacement and ensure the protection of its victims is an urgent imperative. This paper delves into the intricacies of environmental displacement, employing a rigorous methodology of documentary analysis grounded in specialized information. The research incorporates relevant theoretical approaches, international legal norms, and jurisprudence of the Colombian Constitutional Court. Following a systematic interpretative approach, this study aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of this issue and promote a comprehensive and integrated analysis. As a significant contribution, the article underscores the limitations of existing international instruments. While these frameworks establish principles for environmental protection and combating climate change, they fail to provide direct solutions for internally displaced persons due to environmental and climate-related causes. In the specific case of Colombia, the multifaceted nature, variable temporality, and disproportionate impact on vulnerable groups characterize the complexity of environmental displacement. This demands a comprehensive approach from the Colombian State, encompassing the attention to and restoration of the fundamental rights of affected individuals.
Job stability holds a special connotation in the case of public employees. The type of employment relationship they maintain with the State places them in legal situations that extend beyond the fulfillment of their rights, situating them within service-related dynamics that may condition but also legally protect them. To clarify this point, this article conducts a dogmatic study of legal employment relationships with the State, focusing specifically on those of public employees. Through a systematic analysis supported by historical, doctrinal, and jurisprudential materials, it argues that the duties of compliance with legality and pursuit of the general interest imposed on public employees reinforce the notion of absolute or inherent job stability for this category of public servants.
This study reflects on the teaching of research methodology, addressing myths and barriers students encounter, such as the belief that research is reserved for "superior minds" or that all topics are already exhaustively studied. It critiques bureaucratic and rigid frameworks that stifle creativity and practical learning. Drawing from my teaching experience in Research Methodology and Private International Law, I emphasize the value of teaching research through hands-on application, integrating methodology into real-world contexts, and fostering academic curiosity. Research should be viewed as a cross-disciplinary skill embedded throughout academic training, not confined to isolated courses. Learning research occurs by doing: students must cultivate skills in inquiry, analysis, and critical reflection to grasp its relevance in both academic and professional spheres.
This study examines the evolution and current relevance of the English monarchy through a documentary and hermeneutic methodology based on academic sources. Its primary objective is to analyze the monarchy's historical transformation -from its medieval origins to its establishment as a parliamentary institution- its adaptation to democratic governance, and its symbolic role in national identity and international relations. Key milestones such as the Magna Carta (1215) and the Glorious Revolution (1688) are highlighted for their roles in curbing royal authority and empowering Parliament. Over time, the monarchy has transitioned to a largely ceremonial function, emphasizing national unity and diplomatic engagement, particularly within the Commonwealth. Today, its significance lies in its ability to coexist with democratic systems, uphold traditions, and foster social cohesion through high-profile public events. The findings underscore the monarchy's success in navigating political and social change, while also facing challenges such as public scrutiny, the imperative of political neutrality, and maintaining relevance among younger generations. Its continued survival depends on preserving legitimacy through representativeness, transparency, and a balanced integration of tradition and modernity.
