Once More unto the Breach, Dear Friends, Once More. The Puzzle of Unjust Law between Theoretical and Practical Realities: A Brief Comment on The Long Arc of Legality

Abstract

The present work is a commentary on the idea of “Puzzle of Unjust Law” that David Dyzenhaus uses as a starting point of the initial discussions of his book, The Long Arc of Legality. The main argument of the commentary is that the traditional ways of understanding the puzzle, notwithstanding their importance for traditional legal theory, are almost irrelevant for legal practice, especially when we are talking about adjudication. It will be argued that so-called “very unjust laws” are dealt with by judges in a non-puzzle-like way and, on the contrary, mere unjust laws result in more complicated cases for judges, cases that demand more argumentation that the very unjust laws that legal theory tends to worry about.