On the Certainty of the Law

Abstract

Commenting on a book on legal certainty by Humberto Ávila, the author analyzes some of the concepts and problems involved in the issue, including the concept of certainty itself, the rule of law and the normative and institutional structure of a liberal state, the conditions of certainty, as well as several obstacles to certainty. The author also analyzes the constitutional principles from which the (mostly implicit) principle of legal certainty can be derived, as well as its further implications. He argues that the issue of legal certainty is a kind of Aleph (in the sense of Borges) where a great deal of central intertwined problems of the modern legal theory is evident.