A Theory of Legal Obligation

Description

The focus of this monograph lies in the construction of a theory of legal obligation, understanding it as a discrete notion with its own defining traits. In this work, Bertea specifically addresses the question: how should legal obligation be distinctively conceptualized? The conceptualization of legal obligation he defends in this work gradually emerges from a critical assessment of the theories of legal obligation that have been most influential in the contemporary legal-theoretical debate. Building on such critical analysis, Bertea's study purports to offer a novel and unconventional conceptualization of legal obligation, which is characterized as a law-engendered intersubjective reason for carrying out certain courses of conduct.

Stefano Bertea is a Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft research fellow at the Goethe Universitat and an Associate Professor at the University of Leicester. Previously, he was a Marie Sklodowska-Curie research fellow at the University of Edinburgh and at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitat Frankfurt am Main, a visiting research fellow at the Am Max-Planck-Institut fur auslandisches oeffentliches Recht und Voelkerrecht, Germany, an Alexander von Humboldt research fellow at the Christian-Albrechts-Universitat zu Kiel, a senior research fellow at the Universiteit Antwerpen, a visiting professor at the Universita degli Studi di Verona and at the Universita degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, and a visiting researcher at the Universiteit van Amsterdam.