The complexity of law and of the methods of its study

Kazimierz Opałek

pp. 49-62

in: Kazimierz Opałek, Selected papers in legal philosophy, Berlin, Springer, 1999

Abstract

The objects of the study of law are: (1) meanings of (legal) texts, (2) (legal) experiences, (3) (legal) behavior, and (4) (legal) values. Various theories of law dissent as to the ontological character of these objects and their mutual relations. There are "manylevelled" theories according to which all these objects are "the law" — legal objects of equal rank, and, "one — levelled" theories according to which only one of these objects is "law in the sense proper. The most important differences are to be noted between the theories based on objective idealism, and the realistic ones. On the author's view there are two "levels' of law: that of phenomena, and that of meanings. An attempt at a realistic interpretation of these levels and their relations is made. There is also shown the connection of the philosophical problem of the complexity of law with the current methodological questions of the study of law.