On Law and Reason

"On Law and Reason" is a scholarly book that presents a coherent theory of law emphasizing the role of reason within the legal system. The author, Aleksander Peczenik, argues that the application of reason goes beyond deductive logic and requires a more comprehensive consideration of legal argumentation. The first edition of the book, published in 1989, was groundbreaking as it formulated a rationalist theory of law in the language of analytical philosophy. This combination was unusual at the time and remains so today. The book is characterized by analytical rigor typically associated with positivist legal theories, and it connects this with a philosophical position that highlights the importance of reason in determining the law. Furthermore, "On Law and Reason" has influenced developments in the field of legal logic, particularly the emergence of non-monotonic logics for analyzing legal argumentation in the 1990s.