%0 Journal Article
%T The metaphysics of legal positivism
%A Gizbert-Studnicki, Tomasz
%J Principia
%V 2015
%R 10.4467/20843887PI.15.002.5531
%N Volume 61-62
%P 19-40
%K legal positivism, legal fact, reduction, supervenience, grounding, normativity of law
%@ 0867-5392
%D 2016
%U https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/principia/article/metafizyka-pozytywizmu-prawniczego
%X 
	The purpose of this paper is to present a metaphysical analysis of one of the main theses of legal positivism, namely that legal facts are ultimately determined by social facts alone. A short analysis of the notions of social and legal facts is followed by a presentation of possible accounts of the relation of determination. Three alternative accounts are discussed: the reduction of legal facts to social facts, the supervenience of legal facts on social facts and the grounding of legal facts by social facts. The first and second accounts are dismissed as unsatisfactory. The account of determination as a relation of metaphysical grounding appears to be promising, but creates difficulties with explaining the normative nature of legal facts.