A thematic collection of the “Archive of Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy”. Texts on Ronald Dworkin, his dispute with legal positivism, and the reception and applications of his thought. All articles are available free of charge in open access; the language of each text is indicated.
Ronald Dworkin and the dispute over the nature of law
Ronald Dworkin (1931–2013) was the most prominent critic of legal positivism in its Hartian form. He argued that law comprises principles as well as rules, whose validity cannot be explained by a pedigree test; that law is an interpretive practice whose best reading is governed by the ideal of integrity; and that even in hard cases there is one right answer, sought by the model judge Hercules. His major works — Taking Rights Seriously (1977), Law’s Empire (1986) and Justice for Hedgehogs (2011) — set the agenda of anti-positivist legal philosophy for decades.
A special asset of this collection is the Polish translation of Hart’s own Nowe wyzwanie dla pozytywizmu prawniczego (A New Challenge to Legal Positivism) — the voice of the other side of the most famous debate in contemporary jurisprudence — accompanied by Andrzej Grabowski’s study of the genesis of Hart’s Postscript. Alongside them: the “semantic sting” confronted with Jerzy Wróblewski’s theory, Dworkin’s dispute with Fish over interpretation, and applications ranging from international law to academic freedom, as well as the contexts of Joseph Raz’s and John Finnis’s thought.
Selected texts
- O wolności akademickiej. Komentarz do stanowiska Ronalda Dworkina — Paweł Jabłoński, No. 4(45)/2025 (in Polish)
- Wokół wybranych wątków filozofii moralnej Josepha Raza. Część II — Beata Polanowska-Sygulska, No. 2(43)/2025 (in Polish)
- William David Ross’s prima facie duties vis-à-vis Ronald Dworkin’s principles of law — Milena Korycka-Zirk, No. 2(43)/2025 (in English)
- Rozumowanie prawnicze jako rozumowanie praktyczne w świetle nowej teorii prawa naturalnego Johna M. Finnisa — Michał Sopiński, No. 1(21)/2020 (in Polish)
- Narracje prawne a spory prawnicze — Marta Dubowska, Adam Dyrda, No. 2(17)/2018 (in English)
- Filozofia prawa międzynarodowego Ronalda Dworkina — Tomasz Widłak, No. 1(12)/2016 (in Polish)
- Debata Fish – Dworkin jako przykład sporu o praktykę interpretacji prawa — Michał Pełka, No. 2(11)/2015 (in Polish)
- Prequel do Hartowskiego Postscriptum – brakujące ogniwo w debacie Harta z Dworkinem — Andrzej Grabowski, No. 2(9)/2014 (in Polish)
- Nowe wyzwanie dla pozytywizmu prawniczego — Herbert L.A. Hart, No. 2(9)/2014 (in Polish, translation)
- Argument „semantycznego ukąszenia” a teoria prawa Jerzego Wróblewskiego — Adam Dyrda, No. 1(1)/2010 (in Polish)
See also
Classics of Legal Theory and Philosophy · Hans Kelsen and Legal Positivism.
For authors
The “Archive” publishes articles in legal theory and philosophy — including work on Dworkin and the debates with positivism — in Polish and English, in open access with no publication charges and with double-blind peer review. The journal is indexed in Scopus, DOAJ and ERIH PLUS (100 points on the Polish ministerial list). See the guidelines for authors.
An editorial collection. Last updated: July 2026.