The concept of presupposition of legal understanding Jerzy Wróblewski – attempt to defend

Abstract

Background: Legal reasoning is as interesting and compiled as the problem of legal theory. It is a branch of science which in its deliberations must refer to the findings of sciences such as logic and linguistics, where the reasoning comes from. The presuppositions present in logic and linguistics are the best example of this. Their analysis takes place in the law, although so far it has been undertaken extremely rarely. In the current legal discourse, presuppositions are revived. Due to their numerous linguistic-breaking properties, lawyers look for a place for them in legal reasoning. They do so based on the findings of logical and linguistic sciences, forgetting the existence of the concept of presupposition of Jerzy Wróblewski’s legal reasoning. The subject of the research is the analysis of this somewhat forgotten concept of the Polish legal theorist.

Research purpose: Jerzy Wróblewski, based on the existing concepts of the presupposition of pragmatic inference, proposed his own, modified version of the “presupposition of legal reasoning”, which, in his opinion, can be used in constructing the theory of legal reasoning. Wróblewski’s concept did not catch on in the circles of theoreticians or practitioners of law. Most researchers have criticized her. The aim of the article is an attempt to defend the concept of presupposition of legal reasoning against the criticism that has been raised so far.

Methods: the research method is a linguistic and logical analysis of selected concepts. By making a linguistic analysis, the correct understanding of the proposed terms is established. By logical juxtaposing the existing concepts, one seeks to defend Wróblewski’s concepts against the critical remarks.

Conclusions: an analysis of Wróblewski’s concept leads to the establishment of arguments that partially counteract the previous criticism. The work also presents conceptual contradictions contained in the concept, which require clarification in further research.