Legal Validity

Maris Köpcke is a Research Fellow at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, and a Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Barcelona.

1. Introduction: Why Legal Validity?
I. An Intriguing Fact
II. The Code Idea
III. A Neglected Question


2. Legal Power
I. The Task Ahead
II. Facilities to Change Legal Positions
III. Super-Tramp
IV. Raz’s Take
V. Facilities Revisited, or Robert’s Home Move


3. Intention in Valid Acts
I. Four Peculiar Traits
II. The Technique of Communication
III. Codes, or How to Speak Your Mind
IV. Back to Law
V. Valid Acts That Invoke a Legal Regime
VI. Valid Acts That Circulate
VII. Unintentional Valid Acts
VIII. Failed Attempts
IX. The Technique of Legal Validity


4. Justice and Convergence
I. Duties of Justice
II. Specific Convergence
III. The Scope of Specific Convergence
IV. Marking and Enforcing
V. Law’s Marking: Legal Validity
VI. Two Levels of Convergence


5. Reasons to Empower
I. Empowerment
II. Expertise and Capacity
III. Proximity
IV. The Rule of Law: Rulings
V. The Rule of Law: Rulings About Validity
VI. The Rule of Law: General Law-Making
VII. Self-Direction


6. The Systemic Character of Legal Meaning
I. The Moral Need for Law’s Positivity
A. Determinacy
B. Ease of Identification
C. Targeted Crafting
II. The Systemic Character of Legal Meaning
III. A Function of the Acts of Others
IV. Legal Meaning Through Time
V. A Single Author?
VI. Threads in a Fabric


7. Conclusion: The Fabric of Justice
I. The Strength of Limited Power
II. Validity’s Spell