Justice, Truth, and Legal Rationality: A Leibnizian Perspective on Modern Jurisprudence
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35723/lsjs.v1i1.51Keywords:
Leibniz’s Legal Philosophy, Dworkin, Justice, TruthAbstract
This essay examines the relevance of Leibniz's philosophy of law for modern jurisprudence, emphasising his contributions to legal reasoning, justice, and truth. Leibniz's distinction between necessary and contingent truths, his theory of legal proof, and his multi-level approach to law—integrating strict law, equity, and morality—offer valuable insights into contemporary legal thought. His vision of a characteristic universalis, a logical system for structuring legal reasoning, anticipates modern formal methods in law. A comparison with Ronald Dworkin's legal philosophy highlights their shared commitment to objective legal principles and the integration of morality into law. While Leibniz employs formal logic and conceptual analysis, Dworkin's approach focuses on interpretive reasoning. By bridging these perspectives, this essay argues for synthesising analytical jurisprudence and natural law, demonstrating how Leibniz's ideas can help unify legal reasoning across different legal traditions and contribute to the pursuit of justice.
References
[1] Armgardt, M. (2022a). Analogies in civil law reasoning—A formal approach. In New developments in legal reasoning and logic—from ancient law to modern legal systems. Springer Netherlands.
[2] Armgardt, M. (2022b). Zur aequitas in der Rechtsphilosophie von G. W. Leibniz. Erich Schmidt Verlag, 102. https://www.academia.edu/40974961/Zur_aequitas_in_der_Rechtsphilosophie_von_G_W_Leibniz_Zur_aequitas_in_der_Rechtsphilosophie_von_G_W_Leibniz_erscheint_in_Armgardt_Busche_Das_Naturrechtsdenken_von_Leibniz_vor_dem_Hintergrund_der_Säkularisierung_
[3] Armgardt, M. (2023). Justice and Truth: A Leibnizian Perspective on Modern Jurisprudence. Laws, 12(3), 38. https://doi.org/10.3390/laws12030038
[4] Armgardt, M., & Sartor, G. (2023). Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von: Legal Philosophy. In Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6519-1_434
[5] Asuquo, G. O., Umotong, I. D., & Dennis, O. (2022). A critical exposition of Bergson’s process philosophy. International Journal of Humanities and Innovation (IJHI), 5(3), 104–109. https://doi.org/10.33750/ijhi.v5i3.154
[6] Busche, H. (2020). Recht und Billigkeit. In M. Armgardt & H. Busche (Eds.), Recht und Billigkeit: Zur Geschichte der Beurteilung ihres Verhältnisses. Mohr Siebeck. https://doi.org/10.1628/978-3-16-159797-8
[7] Dascal, M., & Wróblewski, J. (1991). The rational law-maker and the pragmatics of legal interpretation. Journal of Pragmatics, 15(5), 421–444. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(91)90047-2
[8] Doubt, K. (1998). Dworkin’s moral hermeneutics and sociological theory. The Social Science Journal, 35(3), 333–345. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0362-3319(98)90003-9
[9] Odok, J. A., & Berebon, C. (2024). The Interplay of Morality, Law, and Democratic Legitimacy in Habermas’s Political Philosophy. Advances in Law, Pedagogy, and Multidisciplinary Humanities, 2. https://jurnal.fs.umi.ac.id/index.php/alpamet/article/view/749
[10] Okon, M. M., & Noah, P. (2023). Challenges to Language Revitalization: The Efut Perspective. Celt: A Journal of Culture, English Language Teaching & Literature, 23. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.24167/celt.v23i1.5447
[11] Okon, M., & Noah, P. (2023). Commissioned and Inspired Works on some Vital Aspects of Linguistics (Book Review). Journal of The Linguistic Association of Nigeria, 26. https://jolan.com.ng/index.php/home/article/view/382
[12] Patrick, C. (2023). Evolution is the source, and the undoing, of natural law. Evolution and Human Behavior, 44(3), 175–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2023.01.002
[13] Samuel, G. (2015). Legal Reasoning and Argumentation. In International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (pp. 776–783). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.86159-0
[14] Senn, M. (2023). Introduction to the Special Issue «Justice Based on Truth». Laws, 12(3), 43. https://doi.org/10.3390/laws12030043
[15] Sovacool, B. K., Burke, M., Baker, L., Kotikalapudi, C. K., & Wlokas, H. (2017). New frontiers and conceptual frameworks for energy justice. Energy Policy, 105, 677–691. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2017.03.005
[16] Vargas, E., & Roinila, M. (2023). Leibniz’s Moral Psychology of an Evil Person. Dialogue, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0012217323000380
