Normas y aparatos conceptuales

dos aspectos del derecho (a partir de la lectura de una frase de Alchourrón y Bulygin)

Abstract

Norms and Conceptual Apparatuses: Two Aspects of the Law (From the Reading of a Sentence by Alchourrón and Bulygin)

Alchourrón and Bulygin hold that positive law contains, in addition to norms that regulate conduct, definitions that reveal a conceptual apparatus that shapes the way we think reality. Building on this view, I argue that legal theory has not paid attention enough to that aspect: the web of concepts or categories through with law thinks, structures, maps out or imagines reality. Taking ground on a pluralist vision, I hold that modern law contains a distinctive conceptual web, different from –though not necessarily completely unrelated to – the web built by science, or implicit in daily law. In Quine terminology, law includes distinctive criteria of objectivation and individuation: an ontology of its own. Along the way I suggest a few general distinctions that may be useful to describe the law: explicit and implicit definitions, derived conceptual apparatuses, and conceptual apparatuses singular to the law. The argument reveals the relevance and singularity of very basic legal categories, such as “person” or “thing”.