Conduct Norms as Deontic Artifacts

Abstract

The article presents a conceptualization of penally reinforced conduct norms upon a clarification of their ontological status. After giving an account of some doctrinal controversies that show the importance of the inquiry, I offer a critical characterization of the two conceptions around which the contemporary debate on the ontology of norms within legal theory has tended to revolve, which are known as the “expressive” and the “hyletic” conception. In opposition to these, I hold that an “artifactualist” conception is in better conditions to provide the point of departure in the elaboration of a theory of norms for the systems of criminal law, purged of any imperativistic residue.