Philosophy of Law: Between the Letter and the Spirit and Judicial Wisdom

Fundacja Dobre Państwo • January 5, 2026 • 🇵🇱 Polski

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Fascynujące ścieżki filozofii prawa
Jerzy Zajadło, Kamil Zeidler

👤 About the Author

Jerzy Zajadło

University of Gdańsk

Jerzy Zajadło is a Polish legal scholar and philosopher, professor of legal sciences, and specialist in the theory and philosophy of law. He is a professor at the University of Gdańsk. He is also a member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Kamil Zeidler

University of Gdańsk

Kamil Zeidler is a Professor at the University of Gdańsk, specializing in legal theory and philosophy, legal rhetoric, and cultural heritage law. He is the author/editor of over 400 publications.

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Aristotelian Phronesis: The Judge's Practical Wisdom

Contemporary legal theory increasingly refers to the concept of phronesis – Aristotelian practical wisdom. It is the ability to make sound judgments under conditions of uncertainty, where the mechanical application of rules fails. In so-called "hard cases" (hard cases), the lawyer ceases to be a mere technician and becomes an interpreter of value conflicts.

Dworkin: Rules and Principles as Pillars of the System

Ronald Dworkin revolutionized legal thinking by introducing the distinction between rules and principles. Rules are applied on an "all-or-nothing" basis, whereas principles set a direction and require "balancing" in a specific context. This allows the law to maintain integrity, bridging the letter of the text with the moral spirit of the system.

Hart vs. Fuller: The Debate over the Internal Morality of Law

H.L.A. Hart and Lon L. Fuller engage in a pivotal debate over the nature of law. Hart defends the separation thesis between law and morality, arguing that the binding force of norms is determined by social criteria (the rule of recognition). Fuller responds with the concept of the internal morality of law: a system must be public, consistent, and understandable to deserve the name of law at all

Summary

This article provides an in-depth analysis of the foundations of jurisprudence, focusing on the tension between the literal meaning of legal provisions and their deeper ethical meaning. The author invokes the Aristotelian concept of phronesis as a key to understanding judicial prudence in the face of so-called hard cases. The text juxtaposes the classical theories of Ronald Dworkin, H.L.A. Hart, and Lon Fuller with contemporary challenges such as scoring systems and artificial intelligence algorithms. The analysis also encompasses the psychological aspects of adjudication, including the impact of cognitive heuristics and bounded rationality on the process of applying the law. The overall analysis presents law not as a rigid set of rules but as a living system requiring integrity, wisdom, and justice in a dynamically changing socio-technological environment.

📖 Glossary

Phronesis: Arystotelesowska mądrość praktyczna, oznaczająca zdolność do wydawania trafnych sądów w sytuacjach niepewności, gdzie mechaniczne reguły zawodzą.
Hard cases: Trudne przypadki prawne, w których proste zastosowanie przepisów nie wystarcza i konieczne jest odwołanie się do głębszych zasad oraz interpretacji.
Reguła uznania: Koncepcja H.L.A. Harta określająca społeczną praktykę akceptowaną przez urzędników, która pozwala zidentyfikować, jakie normy należą do systemu prawa.
Ius cogens: Bezwzględnie wiążące normy prawa międzynarodowego, których moc wynika z uniwersalnych wartości, a nie tylko z samego zapisu ustawowego.
Heurystyki: Uproszczone reguły myślenia pozwalające na szybkie podejmowanie decyzji, które jednak mogą prowadzić do systematycznych błędów poznawczych u sędziów.
Subsumpcja: Proces logiczny polegający na bezpośrednim podciągnięciu konkretnego stanu faktycznego pod ogólną normę prawną w celu wydania wyroku.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do rules differ from principles according to Ronald Dworkin?

Rules operate on an all-or-nothing basis, enforcing specific behavior, while principles merely provide direction and require weighing against other considerations.

What is Lon Fuller's concept of the internal morality of law?

Law must meet minimum formal conditions, such as transparency, intelligibility and lack of retroactivity, in order to be considered a system guiding human behavior.

Why do AI algorithms struggle to deliver justice?

Algorithms rely on soulless correlations and historical data, lacking the capacity for phronesis, the practical wisdom necessary to maintain proportionality.

How does signal detection theory apply to lawsuits?

It helps us understand that the legal system must choose between the risk of convicting the innocent (false positive) and acquitting the guilty (oversight) by setting value-based decision thresholds.

What is 'choice architecture' in the context of contemporary law?

It is the design of a decision-making framework by the state (nudge) that subtly induces citizens to make better choices without formally restricting their freedom.

🧠 Thematic Groups

grupa 1: teoria i fundamenty jurysprudencji – analiza klasycznych sporów między pozytywizmem prawniczym a koncepcjami moralności wewnętrznej prawa oraz integralności systemu
grupa 2: sędziowska mądrość i psychologia decyzji – rola phronesis oraz wpływ heurystyk i ograniczonej racjonalności na proces stosowania prawa w sytuacjach niepewności
grupa 3: wyzwania współczesności i technologie – zderzenie tradycyjnych norm z bioetyką, wolnością religijną oraz algorytmami sztucznej inteligencji wymagającymi ważenia zasad

Tags: phronesis hard cases Ronald Dworkin H.L.A. Hart Lon Fuller weighing the rules integrity of the law jus cogens cognitive heuristics choice architecture scoring systems lex i jus rule of recognition bounded rationality justice