Cambridge Introductions to Philosophy and Law: Deontic Logic and Legal Systems

A considerable number of books and papers have analyzed normative concepts using new techniques developed by logicians; however, few have bridged the gap between the English legal culture and the Continental (i.e. European and Latin American) tradition in legal philosophy. This book addresses this issue by offering an introductory study on the many possibilities that logical analysis offers the study of legal systems. The volume is divided into two sections: the first covers the basic aspects of classical and deontic logic and its connections, advancing an explanation of the most important topics of the discipline by comparing different systems of deontic logic and exploring some of the most important paradoxes in its domain. The second section deals with the role of logic in the analysis of legal systems by discussing in what sense deontic logic and the logic of norm-propositions are useful tools for a proper understanding of the systematic structure of law.

Part I. Introduction to Deontic Logic: 1. The language of logic and the possibility of deontic logic; 2. Paradoxes and shortcomings of deontic logic; 3. Norm-propositions, conditional norms, and defeasibility; Part II. Logic and Legal Systems: 4. Legal systems and legal validity; 5. Legal indeterminacy: normative gaps and conflicts of norms; 6. Legal dynamics.