Law and Authority under
the Guise of the Good (Law and Practical Reason)
by Veronica
Rodriguez-Blanco
The received view on the
nature of legal authority contains the idea that a sound account of legitimate
authority will explain how a legal authority has a right to command and the
addressee a duty to obey. The received view fails to explain, however, how legal
authority truly operates upon human beings as rational creatures with specific
psychological makeups. This book takes a bottom-up approach, beginning at the
microscopic level of agency and practical reason, and continues on to the
justificatory framework of authority. The book argues that an understanding of
the nature of legal normativity involves an understanding of the nature and
structure of practical reason in the context of the law, and advances the idea
that legal authority and normativity are intertwined. This point can be
summarized thus: if we are able to understand both how the agent exercises his
or her practical reason under legal directives and commands, and how the agent
engages his or her practical reason by following legal rules grounded in
reasons for actions as good-making characteristics, then we can fully grasp the
nature of legal authority and legal normativity. Using the philosophies of
action enshrined in the works of Elisabeth Anscombe and Thomas Aquinas, the
book explains practical reason as diachronic future-directed intention in
action, and it argues that this conception illuminates the structure of
practical reason of the legal rules' addressees. The account is comprehensive
and enables the reader to distinguish authoritative and normative legal rules
in just and good legal systems from 'apparent' authoritative and normative
legal rules of evil legal systems. At the heart of the book is the
methodological view of a 'practical turn' to elucidate the nature of legal
normativity and authority. It is a fascinating read for all those interested in
legal philosophy. (Series: Law and Practical Reason) [Subject: Legal
Philosophy]
