Transnational Governance Regimes
Kammerhofer, Jörg, and Jean d' Aspremont (eds.). 2014. International legal positivism in a post-modern world.
20 Pages Posted: 16 Feb 2017
Date Written: October 1, 2014
Abstract
This chapter takes up ‘post-modern positivism’ in the context of transnational law. The basic theme I shall develop is that transnational legal phenomena pose a strong challenge to post-modern positivism in that these phenomena problematise the notion of ‘validity’ that is central to positivism and post-modern positivism. I begin by explicating the notion of ‘positivism’. Here I sketch the basic features of the two leading positivist accounts of law, those of HLA Hart and Hans Kelsen. As I explain, despite the differences in their views, both Hart and Kelsen advance the same ‘model’ of a legal order, that is, one that is built from the bottom up. For each, the ‘bottom’ represents a norm that provides the foundation for a legal order.
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