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Lookup NU author(s): Professor TT Thiruvallore Thattai
Axel Hägerström's axiological nihilism is often taken to render evaluative theories of law impossible: if normative statements are incapable of being true or false, there can be no objective basis on which a particular law can be judged to be desirable or undesirable, or good or bad. This paper challenges that understanding through a reassessment of the theory of legislation formulated by Vilhelm Lundstedt, Hägerström's leading disciple. The reading I present draws not only upon his core theoretical oeuvre, but also on his contributions to popular periodicals on questions that were the subject of public debate and his later contribution to the debate on the Swedish Law of Sales. When seen in the light of his contribution to these debates, his theory of the basis of legislation represents an ingenious attempt to overcome the problem of objectivity in law. I defend his approach, and argue that it has much to contribute not only to modern theoretical attempts to develop specifically legal theories of objectivity, but also to the debate about the role of legal, as distinct from political and moral, argument in the evaluation of existing and proposed legislation and the interpretation of contentious legislative texts.
Author(s): Arvind TT
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: The Theory and Practice of Legislation
Year: 2012
Volume: 1
Issue: 1
Pages: 33-57
Print publication date: 30/11/2012
Date deposited: 13/06/2014
ISSN (print): 2050-8840
ISSN (electronic): 2050-8859
Publisher: Hart Publishing Ltd.
URL: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2450036
