The Contingent Connections between Positivism and Originalism

Abstract

The main aim of this paper is to show that originalism and legal positivism have several elements in common: a radical skepticism towards ethical objectivism, the idea that law can be identified neutrally, and the belief that the semantic content of law derives primarily from the text of normative documents and the intentions of their authors. In this way, the proposed analysis fills a small gap in Jorge Rodriguez's masterpiece and, more generally, reconsiders the relationship between legal positivism and the prevailing interpretive paradigms. The expected impact is to redefine the boundaries between normative models of interpretation and conceptual models of jurisprudence. The methodological approach chosen is the synchronic comparison between widely paradigms and stratified construction proposed by legal scholars.