The Unexisting scale

Abstract

The paper purports to provide a detached analysis of a few pages in the history of the present “age of balancing”. The first part, devoted to the conceptual problem, provides the outline of a terminological and conceptual apparatus concerning the balancing phenomenon. The second part puts that apparatus to work in view of carrying out a critical presentation of three episodes: the “Aleinikoff doctrine”, perhaps one of the first examples of vigorous reaction against balancing theories; the balancing-as-specification theory advocated by J. J. Moreso; the debate between Manuel Atienza, a staunch balancing theorist, on the one hand, and Juan Antonio García Amado, supporting a no-balancing, interpretivist approach, on the other hand.