Methods, Theory & Philosophy of Law

Leszek Leszczyński General Reference Clauses in the Judicial Process

Context of Legislative Intentions and Interpretative Discretion

Berlin, 2021 . 268 pp . Lex et Res Publica. Polish Legal and Political Studies. Vol. 19

hb . • ISBN 978-3-631-85789-2 CHF 70 .– / €D 59 .95 / €A 61 .60 / € 56 .10 / £ 46 .– / US-$ 67 .95 eBook (SUL) • ISBN 978-3-631-86337-4 CHF 70 .– / €D 59 .95 / €A 61 .70 / € 56 .10 / £ 46 .– / US-$ 67 .95

The purpose of this work is to analyze the functioning of extra-legal references (general clauses) in the context of the relation between the legislative policy of opening the legal system and judicial discretion in the field of law interpretation . This publication is based on the analysis of normative acts (in Poland and other selected European countries) and judicial decisions (mainly Polish) . The result of the study is an attempt to settle the scope of judicial discretion in determining the content of reference criteria, the basis for their application, and their role in various stages of the process of judicial interpretation of the law . The book concludes with an attempt to construct a comparative and an optimization model of the functioning of general clauses in the legal order .

lesZek lesZcZyński is Professor of law, Head of the Chair of Theory and Philosophy of Law and Director of the Institute of Legal Sciences at Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin (Poland) . He presided as judge of the Polish Supreme Administrative Court, and authored publications on the interpretation and application of law, human rights and comparative law . Tomasz Pietrzykowski• Krystyna Warchał Naturalism and the Frontiers of Legal Science

Berlin, 2021 . 214 pp . Dia-Logos. Schriften zu Philosophie und Sozialwissenschaften / Studies in Philosophy and Social Sciences. Vol. 29

hb . • ISBN 978-3-631-84498-4 CHF 59 .– / €D 49 .95 / €A 50 .– / € 47 .60 / £ 39 .– / US-$ 57 .95 eBook (SUL) • ISBN 978-3-631-85330-6 CHF 58 .– / €D 49 .95 / €A 51 .40 / € 46 .70 / £ 38 .– / US-$ 56 .95

The essay addresses one of the main challenges to the contemporary methodology of the law, namely a new wave of naturalistic approaches that follow the rapid progress in the studies of the mind as a basis for psychological, behavioral, and cultural phenomena . The book aims to address the extent to which new developments of a naturalistic worldview affect the methodological foundations of studying and explaining the law, and distinguishes two fundamentally different models of scientific inquiry . Interpreting legal texts has to remain an anti-naturalistic, hermeneutic enterprise, conceiving law as a combination of causally related facts . As such, its scientific status depends mostly on its ability to become a part of an interdisciplinary web of naturalistic explanations of reality .

Lidia Rodak Judicial Objectivity:

Limits, Merits and Beyond

Berlin, 2020 . 234 pp ., 1 tables . Dia-Logos. Schriften zu Philosophie und Sozialwissenschaften / Studies in Philosophy and Social Sciences. Vol. 28

hb . • ISBN 978-3-631-65214-5 CHF 59 .– / €D 49 .95 / €A 50 .– / € 47 .60 / £ 39 .– / US-$ 57 .95 eBook (SUL) • ISBN 978-3-653-04679-3 CHF 59 .– / €D 49 .95 / €A 50 .– / € 47 .60 / £ 39 .– / US-$ 57 .95

The book poses the fundamental question of what objectivity means in practical legal discourse and what is its role . By applying critical discourse analysis to the applications of the term “objectivity” in judicial discourse – based on cases from Poland – the book identifies a rich taxonomy of objectivity’s uses that judges make of the concept of objectivity . The main results are that objectivity has a special meaning in the legal discourse based on legal authority, and that a case can be made for a stronger interconnection between objectivity and intersubjectivity . These results challenge the theoretical foundations of the debate on objectivity in the legal discourse and open new perspectives for the justification of this concept in modern societies .