Master i filosofi Sead Zimeri disputerer for ph.d.-graden i humaniora og samfunnsvitenskap, fagområde filosofi, med avhandlingen The Morality of Law.
This thesis defends a unified theory of morality and law: the one-system view or the normative continuity between morality and law. The one-system view contends that law and morality belong to one normative domain: the moral domain or the domain of practical reason. As part of the moral domain, the law is and ought to be made, interpreted and applied within the limits of moral justification. Legal duties are moral duties because the law belongs to the moral domain; consequently, what cannot be morally justified cannot be justified legally. The possibility of having more than one morally right answer to a legal case does not contradict the moral thesis. However, it rules out the possibility of a law that cannot be morally justified. Contrary to legal positivism, which argues that anything, including wicked decrees, can attain the status of law, this thesis denies the legal standing to laws that cannot be morally justified. Acknowledging or denying the status of law to ‘wicked laws’ is the bone of contention between legal positivism and legal non-positivism. There seems to be no middle ground and no possibility of sublating these two positions into a higher synthesis. One of the virtues of legal positivism is that it has highlighted the autonomy of positive law, which is inevitable and morally necessary for the validity of the law. Our disagreement is about the status of the morality of law: is law moral? I argue that the non-positivist legal theory defended here avoids the problems and the shortcomings of legal positivism that arise from denying the morality of law. The thesis, therefore, squarely situates itself within the tradition of non-positivism.
Avhandlingen er tilgjengelig i Munin
Prøveforelesningen finner sted samme dag samme sted kl. 09:15
Prøveforelesning og disputas kan følges via Panopto
Veiledere:
Hovedveileder er professor Beatrix Himmelmann, UiT Norges arktiske universitet.
Biveileder er professor Roe Fremstedal, NTNU Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet.
Bedømmelseskomité:
Førsteopponent professor Christoph Horn, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn.
Andreopponent professor Corinna Mieth, an der Ruhr-Universität Bochum.
Leder av komiteen professor Erik Lundestad, UiT Norges arktiske universitet.
Leder av disputas:
Instituttleder Tor Ivar Hanstad, UiT Norges arktiske universitet.
De som ønsker å opponere ex. auditorio, kan sende en e-post til leder av disputas innen kl. 13:00 disputasdagen:
tor.ivar.hanstad@uit.no