The recent discussion about legal positivism is whether or not a iuspositivist conception can explain two characteristics of contemporary legal systems that seems indisputable: that the existence of law is practice-dependent and that moral reasoning forms part of the processes of identification and application of contemporary legal systems. Those characteristics can be referred to as thesis of the social sources of law and the thesis of incorporationism.

The first part of this book centers on the question on the debate between exclusive and inclusive legal positivism and the moral argumentation of constitutional law.
The second part deals with methodology from the scope and limits of conceptual analysis to the valuable recovery of ideas such as those of Cassirer and von Ihering.

Contents

I. En torno del positivismo jurídico:
K. E. Himma: Missing a piece: legal positivism and the problem of legal obligation
Luis M. Cruz: Neoconstitucionalismo y positivismo jurídico
A. García Figueroa: The pseudo-problem of legal theory and the rise of neo-constitutionalism
R. Escudero Alday: Arguments against inclusive legal positivism
J.B. Etcheverry: What has been the outcome of the ILP/ELP debate?
Pedro Rivas: El sentido de la teoría jurídica del Inclusive Legal Positivism
Mª. L. Suárez Llanos: Positivismo crítico comprehensivo (no incluyente, no exclusivo pero excluyente)
A. Del Real Alcalá: ¿Certeza del Derecho vs. Indeterminación Jurídica? El debate entre positivistas y antipositivistas
L. Huppes: Toward a theory of new natural law as a basis for future legal positivism
M. Hocevar: Deber jurídico y deber moral en el pensamiento de John Finnis
C. Pereira Sáez: La perspectiva del estudio del derecho en el pensamiento de Finnis: el punto de vista interno desde y frente a Hart
F. F. Morales Luna: Cambios en el Derecho, cambios en su enseñanza

II. Algunas cuestiones metodológicas:
K. E. Himma: Conceptual analysis, the naturalistic turn, and legal philosophy
Dennis Patterson: Does legal theory matter to the practice of law?
R. Campione: El lugar del derecho en una teoría de la sociedad
H. Aoi: Significance and limits of principles-oriented legal thinking
C. Varga: Legal traditions? In search for families and cultures of law
I. B. Flores: Legisprudence: the forms and limits of legislation
L. Pérez Conejo: La legisprudencia es ciencia
F. Fleerackers: Aeffective law through legal education: the role of lawyers in interaction and negotiation
Ó. Vergara: El destinatario de las normas jurídicas en la tradición positivista. Un estudio en torno a R. Von Jhering
S. Kirste: Ernst Cassirer’s concept of law and its relation to Neo-Kantian philosophies of law
J. Vega: Normas constitutivas: ¿una categoría autónoma? Sobre la problemática de la constitutividad normativa
L. Duarte de Almeida: Ascriptivism and the Criminal Law