Location: CNH-B107

Russell and Philosophy of Law
The first part of the paper presents some notable contributions of Bertrand Russell to the philosophy of law. In the second part of the paper, the problem of the identity of legal systems is discussed from a twofold perspective. First, the positions of HLA Hart and Joseph Raz are explained, highlighting the Russellian foundations of their reconstructions of legal systems and arguing that their failure to fully explain the criteria for the identity of legal systems is due to their failure to properly apply Russell’s concepts. Second, a new approach to the identity problem is proposed by introducing some notions borrowed from Russell in relation to various concepts of time and relations of membership that can help clarify the multiple senses in which we conceive of law as a legal system.

Speakers

Giovanni Battista Ratti
Visiting Professor (McMaster University)
Professor of Jurisprudence at the Tarello Institute for Legal Philosophy and the Department of Law (University of Genoa, Italy)
Department of Philosophy
McMaster University