Abstract

The author discusses a number of issues raised by Aurelio Gentili's book under the heading "the law as a discourse", viz. the several concepts of legal positivism, the different concepts of legal validity, and the competing conceptions of legal science. In particular, the author stresses that legal positivism understood as the value-free description of the law in force must not be confused with the cognitive (formalistic) theory of interpretation. He also maintains that the normative concept of validity (i.e., binding force) should be definitely dropped. He finally distinguishes between the scientific knowledge of the law in force and the actual non-scientific practice of legal scholars.