What is Law? Aims and Means

This article is an attempt at delimiting the area of philosophical research in order to define the conditions for an adequate definition of the law. This writer believes that this definition is achieved by identifying the particular aims and means which are set for the law and through which the social phenomenon of the law is realized. Assumedly, the definition is to be a response to the so-called normativism in the theory of law, that is, an attempt to explain the notion through the particular means (norms) used by the law. The writer tries to justify not only that his approach characterizes the law more fully, but also that it contributes to better understanding of the links between law and ethics, morality, politics or the remaining conventional social facts.