RphZ Rechtsphilosophie

An approach to analyse the structure of balancing is the idea of defeasible reasoning. This is often explained by using a non-monotonic logic, admitting that new information can invalidate formerly valid inferences. A more fruitful alternative seems...

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...

This contribution aims to explain and develop the premises on which Joseph Raz’s version of liberal multiculturalism is based. Towards the end, the conceptual analysis developed by Raz will be applied to some problems of criminal law, especially...

This contribution aims to analyse Samuel Pufendorf’s critique of the Hobbesian con- cept of equality as the equal exercise of natural rights.In the first section of this article, which addresses the basis of equality, Pufendorf applies his...

This paper examines critically the instrumentalist theory of authority as developed by Joseph Raz. According to Raz’s “normal justification thesis” the authority provides its subjects with the tools to act in accordance with reason. In other...

This article attempts to assess the effects of digitization on the law. To this end, it uses a relational approach that is equally suitable for dogmatic as well as theoretical and phil- osophical approaches to law. In this way, not only some digital...

The article examines the conditions of possibility under which artificial intelligence as rational agents can have individual rights. With recourse to model-theoretical anal- yses, a general model of an order is described that enables the reduction...

Classic legal databases are constructed like a library: each fraction of information, but above all the legal sources to which it refers, can be precisely described and iden- tified. With artificial neural networks (ANNs) and/or self-learning...

In order to digitalise law, one would have to be able to both digitally capture its norms and make decisions based on them. In the case of norms, it is possible to digitally record their text and their propositional structure. However, the reference...

This article analyses aspects of the late work of Jürgen Habermas, namely his attempts to further develop the empirical and normative concept of the public sphere under the auspices of digitalisation. Digitalisation marks a highly ambivalent...

This article discusses the question of whether digital actants should be granted the status of legal personhood from a legal-doctrinal as well as legal-philosophical perspec- tive. For this purpose, the historical genesis of the modern understanding...

In recent years, the concept of recognition has experienced a renaissance in the legal and social sciences, along with widespread attention to its discourse-theoretical foundations. Following Hegel’s dialectical concept of recognition, we find the...

The aim of this essay is to offer an analysis of the conflict between two ethical principles presented by Hegel in the chapter of his Phenomenology of the Spirit titled “The True Spirit, Ethical Life.” One is the principle of the state of the...

In his Philosophy of Right, Hegel emphasises the necessity of action in order to achieve true freedom. In the Phenomenology, this reflection is even more fundamental: the “true self” of the individual and of the spirit lies in the act. Despite...

The paper discusses three concepts from the Phenomenology of Spirit with regard to their contribution to understanding Hegel’s legal thought: Lordship and Bondage, Reason as Lawgiver and Reason as Testing Law, and The Condition of Right. The paper...

This essay compares Hegel’s passage on “lordship and bondage” in The Phenomenology of Spirit with corresponding passages in the Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences (1830) and the Outlines of the Philosophy of Right (1820). The goal is...

The paper introduces a thematic issue on the relationship between G. W. F. Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit and his Elements of the Philosophy of Right. It stresses the importance of a holistic approach towards Hegel’s legal philosophy. Moreover,...

German philosopher Ernst Tugendhat demands in one of his more recent texts that philosophical anthropology should replace metaphysics as the foundation of philosophy, excluding Islam from this new anthropological philosophical endeavor because of...