Foundations of Modern Legal Thought: the Primacy of Right and the Form of Validity as the Mode of Existence of Law

Abstract

The aim of the present article is to show the specificity of the modern legal thought that elevates the activity of free will to the principle of law. Since the ultimate source of all normativity, according to the pre-modern legal thought, lies beyond human activity, man is considered to be under a givenobligation towards the source from which all rights and duties originate: «nature» imposes its law uponman. Such a pre-modern grounding of norms immediately opens up the possibility of denying one anyright (slavery) if one has not full filled their fundamental duty. When traditional sources of normativity lose their efficiency and credibility, it becomes necessary to resort to an immanent principle: the activity of the autonomous subject. This principle is the true foundation of the «original, inalienable right» of man. Law isa construction that is valid only insofar as it is an adequate actualization of the concept of freedom.