In Search of the Nomos of Law. Classical Interpretations and New Challenges to the Autonomy of Law

Keywords: Autonomy of law, nomos of law, Wrocław school of legal theory and philosophy of law, Włodzimierz Gromski, crisis of autonomy of law, Carl Schmitt

English abstract: The aim of this article is to expose the concepts of the autonomy of law and, more primary, the nomos of law, together with the problems that these concepts imply. Contemporary challenges of legal practice and legal science, such as crises of the rule of law or the juridification of successive spheres of social life, call for a re-positioning and rethinking of the question of the autonomy of law. As the article points out, the discussions around these challenges can be read as disputes about the nomos of law – its possibility, nature and location. In this vein, the article analyses the concept of the nomos of law and then, with reference to Carl Schmitt’s interpretation of this notion, addresses the question of the possibility of the autonomy of law. The article also reconstructs the basic theoretical positions on the nature of the nomos of law and the autonomy of the legal order, with particular reference to the output of the Wrocław school of legal theory and philosophy of law in this area. Against this background, selected current challenges to the autonomy of law are considered.

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