Opacity, Deference, and Legitimacy. The Challenges of the Science-Law Interaction

Abstract

The text aims to reconstruct and critically discuss the main theses of the debate presented in this issue of Discusiones around the work of Damiano Canale on the opacity of provisions and norms. In both cases the phenomenon affects the certainty of the law and on the full enjoyment of the rights by the citizens. Juan Iosa and Francesca Poggi focus on examining the opacity of the provisions. The first author places the problem in a dilemmatic form and states that the illegitimacy of these provisions is only “in principle”, the second author, however, believes that only the opacity of the norms is problematic. Finally, Florencia Rimoldi states that the problem of opacity is epistemic and not semantic. For my part, I believe that this discussion distances itself from the usual reflections on “law and science” and that it provides jurists (theoretical and practical) with new tools for a more responsible management of interactions with expert knowledge.