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315Ways of Solving Conflicts of Constitutional Rights: Proportionalism and SpecificationismRatio Juris 25 (1): 31-46. 2012.This paper deals with the question of the conflict of constitutional rights with regard to basic rights. Two extreme accounts are outlined: the subsumptive approach and the particularistic approach, that embody two main conceptions of practical rationality. Between the two approaches there is room for a range of options, two of which are examined: the proportionalist approach, which conserves the scope of rights restricting their stringency, and the specificationist approach, which preserves the…Read more
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133Legal positivism and legal disagreementsRatio Juris 22 (1): 62-73. 2009.This paper deals with the possibility of faultless disagreement in law. It does this by looking to other spheres in which faultless disagreement appears to be possible, mainly in matters of taste and ethics. Three possible accounts are explored: the realist account, the relativist account, and the expressivist account. The paper tries to show that in the case of legal disagreements, there is a place for an approach that can take into account our intuitions in the sense that legal disagreements a…Read more
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65Legal Gaps and Conclusive ReasonsTheoria 68 (1): 52-66. 2002.In his influential paper Legal Reasons, Sources and Gaps' reprinted in The Authority of Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979), Raz says that legal gaps only exist when law speaks with uncertain voice or when it speaks with many voices, but there are no gaps when law is silent. In this later case, rules of closure, which are analytically true, prevent from the occurrence of gaps. According to Raz, if there is a gap in a legal system, then both the claim that there is a conclusive legal reas…Read more
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63The Semantics and Pragmatics of 'According to the Law'In Alessandro Capone & Francesca Poggi (eds.), Pragmatics and Law: Philosophical Perspectives, Springer. pp. 61-88. 2016.
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57Applicability and effectiveness of legal normsLaw and Philosophy 16 (2). 1997.We analyse the relationship between applicability and effectiveness of legal norms from a philosophical perspective. In particular, we distinguish between two concepts of applicability. The external applicability of norms refers to institutional duties; a norm N is externally applicable if and only if a judge is legally obliged to apply N to some case c. Internal applicability refers instead to the sphere of validity of legal norms. A norm N is internally applicable to actions regulated by its s…Read more
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53Handbook of Legal Reasoning and Argumentation (edited book)Springer Verlag. 2011.This handbook offers a deep analysis of the main forms of legal reasoning and argumentation from both a logical-philosophical and legal perspective. These forms are covered in an exhaustive and critical fashion, and the handbook accordingly divides in three parts: the first one introduces and discusses the basic concepts of practical reasoning. The second one discusses the main general forms of reasoning and argumentation relevant for legal discourse. The third one looks at their application in …Read more
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46Sobre la lógica de las lagunas en el derechoCritica 33 (99): 47-73. 2001.En "Legal Reasons, Sources and Gaps", Raz señala que las lagunas jurídicas existen sólo cuando el derecho habla con voz incierta o cuando habla con muchas voces, pero que no hay lagunas cuando el derecho guarda silencio. En este último caso habría reglas de clausura, analíticamente verdaderas, que impiden la ocurrencia de esas lagunas. Según Raz, si hay una laguna en un sistema jurídico, entonces no es verdadero ni falso que exista una razón concluyente para ejecutar cierta acción. Así, una de l…Read more
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45Il Diritto Come Linguaggio (nella Filosofia Analitica Contemporanea)In C. and Roversi G. Pino G. Bongiovanni (ed.), Che cosa è il diritto. Ontologie e concezioni del giuridico, Giappichelli. pp. 373-412. 2016.
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40Interpretive Arguments and the Application of the LawIn Giorgio Bongiovanni, Gerald Postema, Antonino Rotolo, Giovanni Sartor, Chiara Valentini & Douglas Walton (eds.), Handbook of Legal Reasoning and Argumentation, Springer. pp. 495-517. 2011.Some philosophers have recently emphasized the similarities between lawmaking and the production of linguistic utterances in ordinary communication. Based on these similarities, they have defended a theory of legal interpretation that identifies the legal content of a lawmaking act with the communicative content of the authoritative “utterance”. While different versions of the theory differ with respect to which level of utterance content they regard as relevant, they agree that the theory’s sco…Read more
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37On relevance and justification of legal decisionsErkenntnis 44 (1). 1996.The author discusses a question related to a certain aspect of justification of legal decisions, often so-called internal justification-a legal decision is internally justified if and only if it can be deduced from the norm(s) applicable to the case, and from the statement(s) describing the facts of the case. According to this notion, infinite irrelevant logical consequences are justified. To avoid this counterintuitive conclusion, the author analyzes three notions of relevance: Sperber-Wilson's…Read more
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32Reconciling virtues and action-guidance in legal adjudicationJurisprudence 9 (1): 88-96. 2018.In this paper, I intend to articulate an answer to the powerful particularist objection against the notion of moral and legal reasoning based on universal principles. I defend a particular way of specifying and contextualising universal principles. I claim that this account preserves legal and moral justification conceived as subsumption to legal and moral principles. I also try to show how virtues can be reconciled with this account, i.e. what is the right place for virtues in legal adjudicatio…Read more
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31Celano: ontological commitment and normative biteRevus 30 77-80. 2016.In his article on pre-conventions, Celano presents, what the author calls, the Ontological Commitment Thesis and the Normative Bite Thesis. In this short comment, the author argues that the two theses are together both incompatible with the idea that pre-conventions are facts which have causal powers in human behaviour; also, if the ontological thesis is abandoned, normative determination could not be obtained. In other terms, the author argues that either pre-conventions are part of our causal …Read more
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30The Dynamics of Legal Positivism. Some Remarks on Shiner's Norm and NatureRatio Juris 10 (3): 288-299. 1997.
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25Conflictos entre derechos constitucionales y maneras de resolverlosArbor 186 (745): 821-832. 2010.
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22In the Region of Middle Axioms: Judicial Dialogue as Wide Reflective Equilibrium and Mid-level PrinciplesLaw and Philosophy 40 (5): 545-583. 2021.This article addresses the use of foreign law in constitutional adjudication. We draw on the ideas of wide reflective equilibrium and public reason in order to defend an engagement model of comparative adjudication. According to this model, the judicial use of foreign law is justified if it proceeds by testing and mutually adjusting the principles and rulings of our constitutional doctrines against reasonable alternatives, as represented by the principles and rulings of other reasonable doctrine…Read more
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20Nino y Dworkin sobre los conceptos de derechoAnálisis Filosófico 35 (1): 111-131. 2015.Algunos de los más relevantes filósofos del derecho de los últimos años, como Carlos S. Nino y Ronald Dworkin, han defendido que hay una pluralidad de conceptos de Derecho. Scott Shapiro ha sostenido una posición especialmente relevante acerca de ello: la palabra ‘Derecho’ es sistemáticamente ambigua, pues a veces designa un conjunto de normas y otras veces una organización social. Esta es precisamente la tesis criticada en el trabajo. Se argumenta, basándose en determinada literatura filosófica…Read more
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19Consistencia mediante jerarquíaAnálisis Filosófico 33 (1): 94-102. 2013.En esta contribución intentaré mostrar que el criterio lex superior derogat legi inferiori conduce a una consecuencia que, al menos en lo que conozco, no ha sido todavía advertida. Si las normas de la máxima jerarquía de un sistema jurídico, verbigracia, normas constitucionales constituyen un conjunto consistente, entonces necesariamente el sistema jurídico es consistente. Dicho de otra manera, lex superior preserva necesariamente la consistencia. Si las normas del nivel más alto son miembros de…Read more
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17The untouchables of lawCritical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 19 (4): 496-503. 2016.
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16El Fundamento moral del DerechoAnales de la Cátedra Francisco Suárez 56 33-54. 2022.En este artículo, se analiza la cuestión de si la existencia del derecho depende necesariamente de la moralidad. La cuestión que ha enfrentado a las doctrinas del derecho natural con el positivismo jurídico. Se trata de mostrar que dicho debate esconde, al menos tres cuestiones diferentes, que requieren respuestas diversas: 1) La cuestión semántica de si las normas positivas injustas son derecho, 2) la cuestión metafísica de si la existencia del contenido del derecho está fundada en hechos moral…Read more
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14Legal Indeterminacy and Constitutional InterpretationSpringer. 1998.In this book, I present the results of an investigation which began with an extended stay at Oxford's Balliol College during the first half of 1995. My visit to Oxford was made possible by a grant from the Spanish Ministerio de Educaci6n y Ciencia. My sincere thanks go to Joseph Raz who served as my supervisor in Oxford. For several points of the present study, conversations with Timothy Endicott in Oxford were also of great help. The book is part of a larger project of investigation, directed b…Read more
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14The Aristorcracy of All: Gargarella or the Constitutionalism of EqualityRevista Latinoamericana de Filosofía Política 6 (1). 2017.In this comment to the brilliant book on the Constitutionalism in Latin-America, Gargarella, it is accepted that perhaps is the equality the empty promise among the ideals of constitutionalism in this region of the world. It is also accepted that an important part of the reason for this absence of equality lies in the institutional design, in the engine room of the Constitution, concretely in an hypertrophy of presidentialism. A complementary suggestion is added: the ideal of a constitutional de…Read more
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14Aplicabilidad y eficacia de las normas jurídicasIsonomía. Revista de Teoría y Filosofía Del Derecho 5 119-139. 1996.
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13Bosquejo de Dworkin: La imbricación entre el derecho Y la moralidadIsonomía. Revista de Teoría y Filosofía Del Derecho 41 143-174. 2014.Este artículo analiza las principales aportaciones de Ronald Dworkin a la filosofía del derecho y a la filosofía política mostrando que provienen de una visión más amplia que integra el derecho y la moral. La exposición se divide en dos partes. La primera aborda los argumentos de Dworkin para rechazar el positivismo jurídico y presenta su idea de derecho. La segunda se centra en la fundamentación ética del liberalismo y en el criterio distributivo que propone Dworkin.
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13Applicability and Effectiveness of Legal NormsLaw and Philosophy 16 (2): 201-219. 2005.We analyse the relationship between applicability and effectiveness of legal norms from a philosophical perspective. In particular, we distinguish between two concepts of applicability. The external applicability of norms refers to institutional duties; a norm N is externally applicable if and only if a judge is legally obliged to apply N to some case c. Internal applicability refers instead to the sphere of validity of legal norms. A norm N is internally applicable to actions regulated by its s…Read more
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12On Deontic Truth and ValuesCrítica. Revista Hispanoamericana de Filosofía 49 (146): 61-74. 2017.This article analyzes the thesis of ethical relativism, as defended by Alchourrón and Bulygin. These authors offer, on the one hand, a suggestive conception according to which the question “what are our obligations?” is equivalent to thinking about what is to be done; on the other hand, they defend a relativist conception of ethics. They present three objections to constructivist accounts of ethics that are not relativist: a) the argument of the burden of the proof; b) a version of the dilemma o…Read more
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12Schauer on Coercion, Acceptance, and SchizophreniaRatio Juris 29 (2): 215-222. 2016.This article provides a comment on The Force of Law, which is Schauer's new and illuminating contribution to the place of law in our societies and in our lives. It constitutes a strong defence of the importance of coercion in law. First, I consider cases where the law is not able to motivate human behaviour adequately, in order to show that legal coercion is not always justified. Second, I examine the Rawlsian distinction between the ideal and the nonideal theory and its application to the theor…Read more
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10Eugenio Bulygin (1931–2021): The Wonderful RussianRatio Juris 34 (3): 282-285. 2021.Ratio Juris, EarlyView.
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10Guastini sobre la ponderaciónIsonomía. Revista de Teoría y Filosofía Del Derecho 17 227-249. 2002.