Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Juristische Fakultät - European Law School

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Juristische Fakultät | European Law School (ELS) — EULysses | Veranstaltungen | Gastvortrag von Richard Markovits: "Legal Positivism and Legal Liberalism" - HUCELL

Gastvortrag von Richard Markovits: "Legal Positivism and Legal Liberalism" - HUCELL

  • Wann 13.05.2019 von 18:00 bis 20:00
  • Wo WHI-Bibliothek, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 9, 10117 Berlin
  • Teilnehmer Richard Markovits
  • iCal

Humboldt Comparative and European Law Lecture

The Doctoral Programme "Unity and Difference in the European Legal Area" (EPEDER) takes great pleasure in inviting you to a Humboldt Comparative and European Law Lecture by
 
Richard Markovits (Texas)
 
on

“Legal Positivism and Legal Liberalism".
 
Professor Markovits teaches at Texas Law School and writes in the areas of antitrust, law and economics, constitutional law and jurisprudence. His scholarship focuses, among others, on the correct definition of the economic efficiency of a choice, the correct way to analyze the economic efficiency of choices, and the moral or legal relevance of a choice’s economic efficiency. He is the author of articles in the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review as well as the book "Matters of Principle: Legitimate Legal Argument and Constitutional Interpretation" (NYU, 1998), "Truth or Economics: On the Definition, Prediction, and Relevance of Economic Efficiency" (Yale, 2008), and "Economics and the Interpretation and Application of U.S. and E.U. Antitrust Law" (two vols.; Springer, 2014). He has a B.A. from Cornell University, a Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics, a law degree from Yale, and significant training in ethics and jurisprudence.  He came to Texas from Stanford Law School in 1976. From 1981-1983, he was Co-Director of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at Oxford University and a member of the university’s law faculty.

 

In his HUCELL-talk, Richard Markovits will compare and contrast ‘Legal Positivism’ and what he calls ‘Legal Liberalism’. According to Markovits, ‘Legal Positivism’ is the jurisprudential position to which most contemporary U.S. and U.K. legal scholars subscribe, while ‘Legal Liberalism’ is the jurisprudential position to which German courts subscribe and which also correctly delineates the structure and content of “valid” legal argument in the U.S. and U.K.
Legal Liberalism claims that, in liberal, moral-rights-based societies of moral integrity, arguments that examine the concrete implications of liberalism for the resolution of legal-rights questions are not only legally valid but are the dominant modality of legal argument. Legal Liberalism therefore rejects the claim of Legal Positivism that in all societies legal practice is self-validating as well as the claim of Legal Positivism that all moral assessments of German, U.K., and U.S. law are external to law.  Legal Liberalism rejects also the conclusions of Legal Positivism about the conditions that must be fulfilled for an answer to a legal-rights question to be respectively uniquely correct as a matter of law or incorrect as a matter of law as well as its conclusions about the conditions under which and the frequency with which judges must excise “discretion” to resolve legal cases. After discussing these concepts, Markovits will use them to delineate, compare, and evaluate Legal Positivism and Legal Liberalism.

 

The lecture will take place on Monday, 13 May 2019, 6.15-7.45 pm in Room 101 at the Law Faculty of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Walter Hallstein Institute's Library, Unter den Linden 11, 1. Floor).
 
We are very much looking forward to welcoming you!