On Normative Redundancies and Conflicts: A Material Approach

Abstract

This paper analyzes the material character of juridical norms, using the legal speech act of a juridical norm declaration as a starting point. We assume that a juridical norm is the meaning of a legal speech act by which a proper legal authority has declared something, and we contend that the content of this meaning is the declaration of a general ordering for the behavior—or for the understanding of the behavior—of human beings. The specific character that we attribute to the juridical norms, namely their materiality, will be elucidated by distinguishing between the juridical significance of a verbal utterance and the formal statement corresponding to it. From this position, we analyze the logical conflicts and redundancies of the juridical norms from a material perspective, showing the consequences, differences, and specific meanings that this perspective has for these issues concerning juridical norms.