Theory of Legal Principles [Paperback]

This book examines the distinction between principles and rules so that they can be better understood and applied. It structures the distinction between principles and rules on different foundations than those jurisprudence ordinarily employs. It also proposes a new model to explain the normative species, which includes structured weighing on the application process while encompassing substantive criteria of justice in its argument.

Foreword to the German Edition (Theorie der Rechtsprinzipien)

I.

In the past few decades, the most important forward thrust in the fields of Legal Theory and Philosophy has come mainly from the Anglo-American legal universe. That is especially true of the theme of general principles of Law, in which, following the works of Ronald Dworkin, the distinction between rules and principles made its way into the German-speaking legal universe, having found many followers despite some variations and developments in some aspects. The fact that this theme is intensely debated in the Ibero-American legal universe as well has not yet been presented enough in our country.

We are lucky, therefore, that Humberto Bergmann ?vila, with his profound knowledge of the German Legal Science and excellent command of the German language, has presented his Theory of Legal Principles also as a dissertation in German. Born in 1970, the author is a Professor of Tax, Finance, Economic and Constitutional Law at the Federal University at Rio Grande do Sul and a lawyer in Porto Alegre, Brazil. He is connected to the German Legal Science above all for his 2002 Doctor degree obtained with his dissertation on Substantive Constitutional Limitations to the Power to Tax in the Brazilian Constitution and German Fundamental le