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The Dialectics of Law:A Hegelian Solution to the Conflict Between Natural and Positive Law
Sklenář, Václav ; Matějčková, Tereza (advisor) ; Jinek, Jakub (referee) ; Fořtová, Hana (referee)
The aim of the thesis is to answer the question of what do we actually claim, when we claim that certain subject does, or on the contrary does not have certain rights. I attempt to solve the question through an analysis of the traditional conflict in the theory of jurisprudence between natural and positive law. While positivism derives the existence of rights from social facts natural law theories claim that certain rights can be deduced directly from (human) nature, and that these rights are universally acceptable. The first chapters are accordingly dedicated to classical formulations of positivist and naturalist positions and explore their broader theoretical assumptions. Using a dialectical procedure inspired by Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, I endeavour to uncover the inner tensions of the introduced approaches, which point to the justification, or even necessity of the existence of the alternative approaches. A historical excursion into the times of the French revolution follows, which shows how the problems of the presented theories manifested themselves in political practice. The second part of the work discusses various types of reactions to the inability of the tradition to solve the conflict between natural and positive law. I present Griffin's theory of human rights which seeks a...
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Integrating Republicanism: A Conceptual Approach
Halamka, Tomáš ; Franěk, Jakub (advisor) ; Znoj, Milan (referee) ; Fořtová, Hana (referee)
Republicanism is often divided into neo-Roman and neo-Athenian versions. However, both traditions considered separately can provide only a limited and narrow understanding of republicanism and thus deprive the republican political theory of valuable insights. On the contrary, this thesis argues that it would be preferable, both historically and theoretically, to conceive of the neo-Roman and the neo-Athenian strands as branches of a single integrated republican tradition. The thesis begins with a methodological discussion focused on how such an integrated account might be formulated and explains its preference for a conceptual approach that follows the morphology-oriented methodology developed by Michael Freeden. The thesis proceeds to track down the earliest formulations of republican concepts in ancient Greece, then turns to the Roman usage of these concepts and analyses the similarities and differences between the two earliest appearances. The next part concentrates on development of these concepts during the early modern era of classical republicanism in Italy, England and America. Afterwards, the most prominent neo-Athenian and neo-Roman approaches are analysed and interrelated. The last chapter summarises and synthesises the most important findings: (1) Two separate narratives of the...
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Concept of "nature" in Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws
Fořtová, Hana ; Kučera, Rudolf (advisor) ; Čapek, Jakub (referee) ; Pechar, Jiří (referee)
The aim of the dissertation is to clarify concept of nature in the major work of Montesquieu, The Spirit ofthe Laws. In fact we cannotfully comprehend political theory of the author without a proper understanding of his conception of human nature. The majority of interpreters treating this question regard Montesquieu as a follower of the modern school of natural law, mainly Grotius and Pufendorf, and they focus their attention on concepts of "natural right" and "natural law". Nevertheless, Montesquieu employs these terms rarely and he prefers to speak simply of "nature"; moreover, he does not offer a systematic analysis of the concept of natural right, neither any elaborate theory of human nature. The general notion of "nature" enables usto explore the scientific meaning of this term covering theory of climate, as one of the central points of author's politicaltheory. The first part of dissertation analyses the scientific meaning of the concept of nature. Through his activities at Bordeaux Academy Montesquieu was not only a spectator of the scientific revolution but he played the role of an active participant in this field. We focused on the author's attitude to the new idea of nature, mainly with regard to his attempt to understand human body. Montesquieu shares the Cartesian mechanistic conception of...
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