The opacity of law: on the hidden impact of experts' opinion on legal decision-making

It is well known that experts’ opinion and testimony take on a decisive weight in judicial fact-finding, raising issues and perplexities that have long been under scholarly scrutiny. In this paper I argue that expert’s opinions have a much wider impact on legal decision-making. In particular, they may generate a problem that I will call ‘the opacity of law’. A legal text, such as a statute or regulation, becomes opaque if a legal authority is not able to grasp its full linguistic content but is nevertheless in a position to use it, thanks to an expert’ opinion, in legal decision-making. When this occurs, not only do experts contribute to factfinding but also to determining the content of the law. In the paper I analyse the linguistic and cognitive sources of this phenomenon, its characteristics and troublesome consequences, and the different kinds of opacity that may affect legal decision-making

Default reasoning and the law: a dialogue

Reasoning by default is a relevant aspect of everyday life that has traditionally attracted the attention of many fields of research, from psychology to the philosophy of logic, from economics to artificial intelligence. Also in the field of law, default reasoning is widely used by lawyers, judges and other legal decision-makers. In this paper, a philosopher of language (Carlo Penco) and a philosopher of law (Damiano Canale) attempt to explore some uses of default reasoning that are scarcely considered by legal theory. In particular, the dialogue dwells on the notion of literal meaning, witness testimony, and the problem of disagreement among experts in legal proceedings. The paper is intended as a sort of brain storming useful to identify new lines of research straddling philosophy of law, cognitive psychology and philosophy of language

Tras la naturaleza del derecho. Reflexiones sobre el desafío de Shapiro

Este ensayo se enfoca críticamente en los aspectos meto- dológicos del libro Legalidad de Scott Shapiro. De hecho, el libro de Shapiro presenta varias tesis originales sobre la naturaleza del derecho y los principales problemas de la filosofía del derecho, pero también sobre cómo la filosofía del derecho puede descubrir la naturaleza del derecho. En este sentido, el método de investigación adoptado por Shapiro puede considerarse como uno de los resultados más interesantes y desafiantes de su investigación. El ensayo está dividido en dos partes. La primera proporciona un análisis del enfoque filosófico de Shapiro; en particular, se centra en el recurso de Shapiro al vocabulario metafísico, el análisis conceptual, el razonamiento constructivo y la explicación institucional del derecho. La segunda parte destaca algunos de los problemas que plantea este enfoque. En particular, el ensayo argumenta que (1) la teoría del derecho de la planificación no puede explicar la obligación legal; (2) la estrategia constructiva de Shapiro tiene un carácter recursivo que tiende a oscurecer la variedad de entidades legales; (3) la versión de análisis conceptual propuesta en Legalidad es semánticamente ciega y corre el riesgo de volver a leer en el mundo las características del lenguaje; (4) Shapiro supone que las entidades legales equivalen a un solo universo de hechos legales, mientras que las normas, contratos, parlamentos, etc., reales no parecen tener el mismo conjunto básico de propiedades y existir de la misma manera. Para dar cuenta de esto, el ensayo describe una visión alternativa sobre la natura- leza del derecho basada en un enfoque pluralista de la ontología social

Cuando los expertos crean derecho: deferencia, opacidad y legitimidad

 El artículo centra la atención en la deferencia que los legisladores y jueces le brindan a los expertos, destacando un fenómeno hasta ahora no considerado en la literatura. Llamo a este fenómeno “opacidad del derecho”. En particular, el artículo distingue la opacidad de los textos normativos, tales como disposiciones constitucionales, leyes o reglamentos, de la opacidad de las normas jurídicas que expresan el contenido de estos textos. Un texto normativo es opaco si contiene términos o expresiones técnicas, incorporadas por indicaciones de expertos, que escapan a la comprensión de los miembros del cuerpo legislativo. Una norma jurídica es opaca, en cambio, si su contenido está fijado implícitamente por expertos, aunque ese contenido no sea comprendido por el juez llamado a aplicar la norma. Cuando los textos normativos o las normas legales se vuelven opacos, la deferencia epistémica hacia los expertos se convierte en deferencia semántica, y los expertos crean derecho en el sentido de que determinan el contenido de los textos normativos. A partir de dos ejemplos jurisprudenciales, el artículo analiza el origen de este fenómeno y sus perniciosos efectos

La precomprensione dell’interprete è arbitraria?

Il concetto di precomprensione svolge un ruolo chiave nella metodologia giuridica contemporanea. È infatti opinione ampiamente condivisa che l’interpretazione giudiziale sia condizionata dalle competenze linguistiche e tecnico-giuridiche del giudice, dalle sue presupposizioni e inclinazioni, dai suoi valori e preferenze politiche; fattori, questi, che conducono il giudice ad anticipare il senso (precomprendere) del testo oggetto di interpretazione, prefigurando la soluzione del caso. Ma se la precomprensione precede qualsiasi processo interpretativo, condizionandone gli esiti, come distinguere una precomprensione corretta, legittima, adeguata da una precomprensione errata, illegittima, inadeguata? Questo saggio tenta di rispondere a tale quesito ricostruendo il modo in cui il concetto di precomprensione è stato elaborato dall’ermeneutica novecentesca, in particolare da Gadamer e da Heidegger. La tesi centrale del saggio è che la precomprensione si presta ad essere considerata corretta se corrisponde alla “cosa stessa” (Sache selbst) disciplinata dal testo normativo. Tale criterio può essere articolato concettualmente mediante un approccio inferenzialista ai contenuti linguistici e al ragionamento giuridico

Introducción: Un análisis crítico de "La teoría del derecho como plan"

Se reúne una serie de consideraciones acerca de la discusión general. En especial se pretende contextualizar la discusión acerca de Legality como una discusión enmarcada en disensos más amplios sobre cultura jurídica, la definición de positivismo jurídico y el rol de la teoría del derecho

Iusnaturalismo prussiano y codificación. Notas de discussión

La nota critica si divide in due parti. Nella prima parte Maximiliano Hernández Marcos propone un commento critico del volume "La costituzione delle differenze. Giusnaturalismo e codificazione del diritto civile nella Prussia del '700" di Damiano Canale, sommermandosi, in particolare, sulla tradizione del cosiddetto "Giusnaturalismo prussiamo", oltre che sulle caratteristiche e il significato storico dell'Allgemeines Landrecht del 1794. Nella seconda parte, l'autore del volume risponde alle osservazioni di Marcos, precisando i risultati della sua ricerca

Teorías de la interpretación jurídica y teorías del significado

En este artículo intento, en primer lugar, evidenciar por qué toda teoría de la interpretación presupone una teoría del significado. Intento luego, en segundo lugar, reconstruir brevemente la teoría del significado implícitamente utilizada en "El escepticismo ante las reglas replanteado", evidenciando cómo en realidad el discurso de Guastini presupone dos teorías, entre ellas incompatibles

Multiple cues produced by a robotic fish modulate aggressive behaviour in Siamese fighting fishes

The use of robotics to establish social interactions between animals and robots, represents an elegant and innovative method to investigate animal behaviour. However, robots are still underused to investigate high complex and flexible behaviours, such as aggression. Here, Betta splendens was tested as model system to shed light on the effect of a robotic fish eliciting aggression. We evaluated how multiple signal systems, including a light stimulus, affect aggressive responses in B. splendens. Furthermore, we conducted experiments to estimate if aggressive responses were triggered by the biomimetic shape of fish replica, or whether any intruder object was effective as well. Male fishes showed longer and higher aggressive displays as puzzled stimuli from the fish replica increased. When the fish replica emitted its full sequence of cues, the intensity of aggression exceeded even that produced by real fish opponents. Fish replica shape was necessary for conspecific opponent perception, evoking significant aggressive responses. Overall, this study highlights that the efficacy of an artificial opponent eliciting aggressive behaviour in fish can be boosted by exposure to multiple signals. Optimizing the cue combination delivered by the robotic fish replica may be helpful to predict escalating levels of aggression

High innate attractiveness to black targets in the blue blowfly, Calliphora vomitoria (L.) (Diptera: Calliphoridae)

Calliphora vomitoria is a myiasis-causing fly in many animal species including humans. The control of blowflies is still anchored on the use of chemicals. However, mass trapping and lure-and-kill techniques represent a promising alternative to pesticides. Visual and olfactory cues are the main stimuli routing the fly's landing behavior. Notably, color attractiveness has been barely explored in flies of medical and veterinary importance, with special reference to blowflies. In this study, we investigated the innate color preferences in C. vomitoria adults, testing binary combinations of painted targets under laboratory conditions. The identity of tested species C. vomitoria was confirmed by DNA sequencing (18S and cox1 genes). C. vomitoria flies showed a significant preference for black colored targets in all tested binary color combinations, after 5, 15, 30 and 60 min of exposure. Black targets were significantly preferred over blue, red, yellow and white ones. Spectral characteristics of all tested color combinations were quantified and the innate attraction of blowflies towards black targets was discussed in relation to their behavioral ecology. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on innate color preferences in the Calliphora genus. Our findings can be useful to develop new, cheap and reliable monitoring traps as well as â\u80\u9clure and killâ\u80\u9d tools to control blowfly pests