As part of the execution of the task 4.8. within Work Package 4 of the ALF project, PhD students and early-career researchers at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law – Marija Vlajkovic and Sava Vojnovic – visited the Tarello Institute for Legal Philosophy (Istituto Tarello per la Filosofia del Diritto) in Genoa, Italy. Work Package 4 aims at gaining a comprehensive overview on the topic of the language of law (led by the University of Genoa), while the task WP 4.8. is established especially for the purpose of the improvement of personal knowledge and skills through a visit and interaction with the Genoa University professors, as well as other guest lecturers.
The research stay included formal attendance at the Master course “Global Rule of Law and Constitutional Democracy” that lasted from June 20th to July 14th 2023. Morning sessions lasted from 9.30 AM to 12.30 PM and afternoon sessions from 15.30 PM to 18.30 PM. Sava arrived at Genoa on the 18th of June, while Marija arrived on the 2nd of July. Sava followed the whole Master Course while Marija was present during the last two weeks of the Course when the topic such as democracy and international law of law were covered.
The scholarships were provided by the Center for Legal Fundamentals (CLF) within the ALF project for the purpose of the improvement of personal knowledge and skills through a visit and interaction with professors which aims at gaining a comprehensive overview on the topic of the language of law, as well as other relevant topics. During the lectures, Marija and Sava had the chance to discuss many interesting and useful questions in their relevant fields of interest with all the visiting professors. Apart from attendance to lectures, Marija worked on her PhD thesis, while Sava prepared his first PhD exam and developed the project of his PhD thesis at the Tarello Institute premises. Marija worked on her Chapter “EU Rule of Law backsliding as part of the Constitutional crises in the EU” as part of her PhD thesis titled “Adaptation of the Bases of the National Legal System in the Perspective of Serbia’s Accession to the EU: Contribution to the Study of the Relationship Between the EU Law and Constitutional Law”, while Sava was working on drafting doctoral thesis project “Naturalization of Legal Theory”, as well as on his scientific paper “Forerunners of Realism in Political Theory”. Related to the topics they treated they had several encounters with professors and researchers within the Institute.
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH ITINERARY:
FIRST WEEK:
On Monday, 19th of June, Sava Vojnovic met with professors Pierluigi Chiassoni and Andrej Kristan from Genoa University at the Tarello Institute for Legal Philosophy in order to make arrangements regarding the research stay. Prof. Kristan introduced Sava to the employees of the Institute, as well as all other professors and PhD students at Genoa, while at the same time giving him a tour of the Institute facilities and the University.
The first week of lectures was dedicated to the following topics:
1) Legal Interpretation and Argumentation, with Prof. Pierluigi Chiassoni (University of Genoa) and prof. Eric Millard (University of Paris-Ouest Nanterre) – held in Spanish;
2) Law, Reason, Argumentation, with Prof. Paolo Sandro (University of Leeds).
Prof. Sandro talked about the distinction between the creation and application of law as a basis for understanding constitutional democracy. He presented three chapters of his book, arguing that the realist position of legal indeterminacy undermines current democratic theories.
SECOND WEEK:
The second week of lectures was dedicated to the following topics:
1) Constitutional State and General Theory of State, with Prof. Robert Alexy (Christian Albrechts University, Kiel) and commentators;
2) Theory of law and legal science: The Philosophy of Law of Gustav Radbruch Through American Eyes, with Prof. Martin Borowski (University of Heidelberg), prof. Stanley Paulson (Washington University St. Louis), prof. Michel Troper (University of Paris-Ouest Nanterre), prof. Veronique Champeil-Desplats (University of Paris-Ouest Nanterre) and prof. Juan Ruiz Manero (University of Alicante, Spain).
Morning sessions were dedicated to the second set of topics, which were officially organized as ALF sessions.
Prof. Stanley Paulson and Prof. Martin Borowski talked about the question of Gustav Radbruch’s pre and post-war legal philosophy. The questions they addressed concerned the comparison of the two positions Radbruch took throughout his life, i.e. the relationship between his positivistic and non-positivistic elements. Each of the lecturers claimed Radbruch maintained continuity in his legal philosophy, having a strong inclination towards non-positivism from the beginning, because of his early appeal to human rights as core values and justice as part of the concept of law.
Also, prof. Paulson talked about elements in Kelsen’s legal philosophy that could be connected with Kant and Neokantian positions. He argued that the main difference was that Kant explicitly refuted the possibility of skepticism, while Kelsen did not – stating that his theory of law is just one possible interpretation.
Afternoon sessions were dedicated to Prof. Robert Alexy’s presentation of his non-positivistic theory of law. He claimed law has a dual nature: an ideal and a real one. Justice and coercion are the foundations of law, while law conceptually (necessarily) claims its correctness – i.e. if a system does not claim to be correct, it is not a legal system. On the other hand, if a system does not fulfill (rather only claims) moral correctness – it is still a legal system, although a defective one. Hence, moral defects lead to legal defects.
THIRD WEEK:
The third week of lectures was dedicated to the following topics:
1) Introduction to Democratic Theory, with Prof. Michelangelo Bovero (University of Turin), prof. Massimo Cuono (University of Torino) and prof. Valentina Pazé (University of Turin) – held in Spanish;
2) Rule of Law and Legal Certainty, with Prof. Alejandro Calzetta (Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile), prof. Giovani Battista Ratti (University of Genoa) and prof. Juan Pablo Alonso (University of Buenos Aires) – held in Spanish.
Since all lectures that week were held in Spanish, Marija and Sava used the time to work on their research topics. They both had an office for work arranged at the Tarello Institute for Legal Philosophy. Marija Vlajkovic had a meeting with Andrej Kristan and Julieta Rabanos and met other researchers and PhD students at the Institute.
Sava met with Prof. Chiassoni on Wednesday, the 5th of July, to discuss about the development of his PhD thesis, i.e. the potential problems, structure and ideas.
FOURTH WEEK:
The last week of lectures was dedicated to selected topics on Legal Philosophy, with prof. David Dyzenhaus (University of Toronto), prof. Timothy Endicott (University of Oxford), prof. Brian Bix (University of Minnesota Law School), prof. Cheryl Misak (University of Toronto), prof. Matthias Klatt (University of Graz) and prof. Adam Dyrda (Jagiellonian University, Krakow).
Sava and Marija regularly attended the last week of the Master Course. Some of the lectures by the guest lecturers during the last week were the following:
Prof. Dyzenhaus outlined the main arguments of his book ‘The Long Arc of Legality: Hobbes, Kelsen and Hart’. Prof. Klatt gave a lecture on two topics – the problem of court competencies (national constitutional courts, the Court of Justice of the EU and the EU Court of Human Rights) and the problem of foreign precedents. Prof. Misak talked about pragmatism in legal theory. She addressed the concept of truth and justification in pragmatist views, as well as the relation between pragmatism and realism. Prof. Dyrda talked about the concept of beliefs. He outlined the main divisions within philosophy of science, and consequently within legal philosophy, while suggesting a naturalized methodology in legal theory.
Also as an official part of the ALF project, an international ALF workshop on the Jurisprudence of John Gardner took place at the Palazzo dell’Albergo dei Poveri in Genoa on July 14, 2023. The event dedicated to the memory of John Gardner titled “Law, Positivism, Responsibility” included contributions by Annalisa Acorn, Brian Bix, Alejandro Calzetta, Sebastián Figueroa, Matthias Klatt, Julieta Rábanos, Cristina Redondo, José Maria Sauca, Natalia Scavuzzo, and Bojan Spaić. They addressed the main issues and contributions of John Gardner’s legal philosophy, such as his approach to legal positivism, the rule of recognition, legality, and rationality. As representatives of the Belgrade University ALF Team, Julieta Rabanos and Prof. Bojan Spaic also participated as presenters at the Conference. Julieta challenged some of Gardner’s claims regarding his understanding of the concept of authority, while Prof. Spaic criticized Gardner’s understanding of jurisprudence in comparison to the practical aspects of law.
Other topics covered were the following: Bix – “John Gardner on the Scope of Legal Positivism”; Redondo – “Gardner’s on the Practical Capacity of Law to Provide Reasons for Action to Justify Decisions”; Calzetta – “Gardner’s (LP*). One big problem and 5 1/2 little ones”; Figueroa – “Duties and Responsibilities”; Acorn – “Responsibility, Self-respect and the Ethics of Self-pathologization”;Klatt – “5 1/2 Myths of Legal Non-Positivism”; Sauca – “Homage to Gardner’s ‘Can There Be a Written Constitution?'”; Scavuzzo – “The Jurisprudence of John Gardner. The Legality of Law”.
Overall, this Research Stay was very beneficial and useful for both Sava and Marija, as they had the opportunity not only to hear and learn from guest lecturers and renowned researchers in the academia on numerous topics, but also benefited from encounters with professors and other senior researchers at the Tarello Institute for Legal Philosophy that were an added value in their doctoral thesis researching and writing process.
