Overview

This book challenges the view that legal positivism should be reduced to a conceptual analysis of legal validity. Instead, Elena Namli reclaims legal positivism as a theory of the relationship between law, morality, and politics. Presenting novel interpretations of the classical works of Herbert L. A. Hart, Joseph Raz, and Jürgen Habermas, Namli frames legal positivism as a theory that makes possible a moral and political critique of valid law. Moreover, this book defends the dialectical relationship between law, politics, and morality by combining a positivist approach to legal validity with a constructivist ethical theory which strengthens the critical potential of legal positivism. Legally valid norms may not always be morally justified, but understanding the moral quality of legal regulations is essential for comprehending modern law.

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9781666973402

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Reviews

In this lucid work, Elena Namli makes a powerful case for a new critical legal positivism. Through generous and incisive readings of Hart, Raz, and Habermas, she argues for a dialectical understanding of the complex relations among law, politics, and morality which—coupled with a materialist sensitivity to concrete injustices—can produce a grounded, bottom-up critique of contemporary liberal democracy. * Michael Goodhart, University of Pittsburgh * In Legal Positivism, Politics, and Critical Ethics, Elena Namli breathes new life into well-worn debates about law, ethics, and democracy. Proceeding through appreciative but sharp critiques of H.L.A. Hart, Joseph Raz, and Jürgen Habermas, Namli defends a genuinely critical form of legal positivism consistent with the normative universalism at the heart of modern democracy. Beautifully written and cogently argued, the book represents a major contribution to political theory. * Jeffrey C. Isaac, James H. Rudy Professor of Political Science, Indiana University Bloomington * Elena Namli offers here a profound defense and reconstruction of legal positivism. According to Namli, the best version of positivism should not endorse a strict separation between law on one side, and morality and politics on the other. Rather, there is no way to understand the validity of particular laws, and law’s nature as a social practice, without understanding them as worked out in the shadow of both politics—and, in democracy, the citizens who author the law—and morality. Namli works out her theory in dialogue with three theorists of the law—Hart, Raz, and Habermas—while showing the limits of each one. This will be essential reading for anyone interested in the relation between law, morality, and politics. * Andrea Sangiovanni, King's College London *

Author Information

Elena Namli is professor of ethics at Uppsala University.

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