Full Description
In response to a climate in which respect for international law and the law of the European Union is rapidly losing ground, Paul Gragl advocates for the revival of legal monism as a solution to potentially irresolvable normative conflicts between different bodies of law. In this first comprehensive monograph on the theory as envisaged by the Pure Theory of Law of the Vienna School of Jurisprudence, the author defends legal monism against the competing theories of dualism and pluralism.
Drawing on philosophical, epistemological, legal, moral, and political arguments, this book argues that only monism under the primacy of international law takes the law and the concept of legal validity seriously. On a practical level, it offers policy-makers and decision-makers methods of dealing with current problems and a means to restore respect for international law and peaceful international relations. While having the potential to revive and elicit further interest and research in monism and the Pure Theory of Law, the comprehensiveness and scope of the book also make it a choice text for inter-disciplinary scholars.
Contents
INTRODUCTION
1: The Principal Question
2: Framing the Problem
3: A Theoretical Analysis of Legal Monism: The Scope of this Book
THEORIZING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DIFFERENT BODIES OF LAW
1: Legal Monism
2: Legal Dualism
3: Legal Pluralism
4: Conclusions
THE EPISTEMOLOGICAL NECESSITY OF LEGAL MONISM
1: Introduction
2: Legal Epistemology and the Synthetic A Priori of Law: Kantian and Neo-Kantian Sources
3: The Grundnorm
4: The Hierarchy of Norms
5: Legal Monism: The Necessary Unity of National and International Law
6: Legal Monism: Critique and Rebuttal
7: Conclusion: An Overall Appraisal
THE DESCRIPTIVE VALUE OF LEGAL MONOISM
1: Introduction: On Verifiability
2: National Law and International Law
3: National Law and European Union Law
THE MORAL APPEAL OF LEGAL MONOISM
1: Introduction: Beyond Epistemology and Description
2: Ideological Criticism and Legal Monism
3: Democracy and Legal Monism
4: Pacifism, Cosmopolitanism, and Legal Monism
5: Appraisal
CONCLUSION
1: The Principal Question Answered
2: Findings of this Book
3: Monism in Our Times
