Remarks on the Theory of legal contraintes

A Reading of Michel Troper, Véronique Champeil-Desplats and Christophe Grzegorczyk (eds.), Théorie des contraintes juridiques, París, LGDJ, 2005

Abstract

The set of thesis called Théorie des contraintes juridiques, has been developed, for about twenty years, within the Centre de Théorie et Analyse du Droit of the University of Paris-Nanterre, France, from the work of Michel Troper, Véronique Champeil-Desplats and Christophe Grzegorczyk. The book discussed here is an expression of that collective work. In the first part of this paper I will introduce the theses defended by the Theory. Thus, I will make reference to the epistemological framework in which it is inserted, then I will propose a more precise definition and a possible typology of contraintes. In the second part, I will make some critical observations and introduce some considerations of my own. On the one hand, I will focus on the difficulty of the Theory to account for the regularity in judicial decisions and, on the other hand, I will insist on the need to address the issue of legal argumentation using a notion of contrainte though different from the one advanced by the Theory