Intersubjective recognition and normativity of law

Dinc, Ugur (2023) Intersubjective recognition and normativity of law. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This thesis develops a content-independent, non-evaluative and non-individualist account of the normativity of law. In distinction from the action-centred questions of the moral obligation to obey the law and the legal obligation, this thesis views the question of the normativity of law as a normative reasoning-centred relationship between an individual and a given legal rule. It asks, when one confronts a given legal rule in the way of determining her course of action, in what terms she can come to a normative judgement that the guidance of that legal rule possesses or lacks normative force. In pursuit of an answer, the thesis takes a stand against the generally established case for individual reasons on the strength of two legal-conceptual arguments which stand in one’s way of establishing her normative relationship with a legal rule in reference to her individual reasons, namely that each legal rule addresses a certain formal social group and, second, that it functions on the general mode of operation. Instead, the thesis makes a legal-conceptual case in favour of intersubjective-recognitive reasons by drawing on the accounts of intersubjective recognition by G.W.F. Hegel and Axel Honneth. Further, the thesis sets a connection between the puzzles of the normativity of law and freedom and argues that the intersubjective-recognitive reasons as the only conceptually appropriate reasons referable in one’s normative relationship with a legal rule should lead us to reconceptualize the idea of freedom viable under the governance of legal rules in Hegelian, relational terms. Additionally, the thesis develops two derivative concepts out of the intersubjective-recognitive reasoning, the ontological decentralization of individuals in relation to each other in the context of a social group and the construal of one’s subjectivity in a social group as social subjectivity.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Additional Information: Supported by funding from the Ministry of National Education of Turkey, Abroad-Study Scholarship Scheme.
• Subjects: K Law > K Law (General)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences > School of Law
• Supervisor's Name: Pavlakos, Professor George and Christodoulidis, Professor Emilios
• Date of Award: 2023
• Embargo Date: 20 March 2026
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2023-83494
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 22 Mar 2023 14:52
• Last Modified: 23 Mar 2023 09:55
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.83494
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/83494