La interpretación del derecho en el positivismo ético contemporáneo

Abstract

In the never-ending discussion about the nature of legal positivism it has been proposed to return to their Anglo-Saxon origins, namely, Hobbes, Bentham and Austin. Positivistic thesis do not intend to be conceptual nor descriptive, but normative or prescriptive, since they state how ought to be legal systems. This prescriptive feature is not based on the advantages for legal science or on a better description of Law, but on moral and political reasons. Thus the label of ‘ethical positivism’. The paper deals with the theory of interpretation of ethical (prescriptive, normative) positivism proposed by Tom Campbell, who is the most outstanding scholar upholding the return to this kind of legal positivism.