On The Study Of Radbruch’s Relativism Legal-philosophy

Radbruch is one of the greatest and the most influential philosophers and criminal lawexperts in German history in the20th century. As an important representative in the field oflegal philosophy, Radbruch who belongs to the Heidelberg’s school of neo-Kantianphilosophy, set his theory based on the neo-Kantian philosophy, inherited and carried forwardthe tradition of neo-Kantian Law, and developed a positively relativist legal-philosophy. Thepositively relativist legal-philosophy made by Radbruch was aimed at overcoming the NaturalLaw School’s absolute value-doctrine, as well as the absolute positivism that was maintainedby the Empirical Analysis of Jurisprudence, so as to be helpful for exploring a philosophicalpath towards reconciliation and tolerance. However, it seems that Radbruch’s academic effortsto the innovation of the traditional legal philosophy did not get the due recognition and evenhis "Academic steering problem", which was displayed before and after the World War II, hascaused a lot of discussion. Some people consider Radbruch’s academic efforts as the revivalof natural law, while some insist that Radbruch is a consistent and firm legal-positivist, andsome say his positively relativist legal-philosophy does not contribute to the incrementalknowledge, and even its internal ideological philosophy of law is full of contradictions, and ishard to be justified by himself. So, how to interpret the relativist legal-philosophy ofRadbruch? What’s the real meaning of his relativist legal-philosophy? What’re thecharacteristics of his theories? And what’s the significance of his legal-philosophy? Thisarticle intends to answer these issues.To solve these issues, this article will be discussed in the six sections:Introduction briefly outlines the origin of the article topic and teases out the academicstatus about Radbruch’s theories at home and abroad necessarily, so as to extract the academicspace for researching. Meanwhile, the research method of the article will be illustrated.The first part mainly discusses the theoretical basis of Radbruch’s legal philosophy,which includes two parts, i.e. Philosophical foundation and Legal basis. And it accordinglypointes out that Radbruch devoted himself to overcoming debate between the law philosophyof natural law and analytic positivist jurisprudence and opening up the "third path" of legalphilosophy for the purpose at the beginning of putting forward his theories,.The second part primarily states the key to understanding Radbruch’s legal philosophy,that is “the legal method theory of relativism”. This part will be divided into two section. Firstly, it clarifies the specific meaning of the legal method theory of relativism; secondly, itanalyzes the reasons and significance of the legal method theory of relativism.The third part specifically analyzes the main contents of the Radbruch’s legal philosophy.This part consists of static analysis and dynamic analysis. In the former, it will deconstruct hislegal-philosophy system and analyze the important concept involved (including theirmeanings, relationships, etc). As a result, this process will reveal the inherent tension andharmony of Radbruch’s theories. In the latter, it will focuses on interpreting the so-called"Radbruch’s academic steering problem" deeply. By comparing, we can find that Radbruch’stheories are characterized by the unite of consistency and transformation before and after theWorld War II, from the relativist view. Furthermore, the so-called "Radbruch’s academicsteering problem" indeed does not exist. When Radbruch put forward the concepts known asillegal law and super-law law, he actually put his theories into practice and showed his triplelegal-philosophy system.The fouth part is the extension of the third part. In this part, it will elaborate the qualitiesof Radbruch’s legal-philosophy. On this basis, it will point out what the relativism philosophywill enlighten human. Firstly, as a positively relativist legal-philosophy, Radbruch’s theoriesopen up new path towards the research and provide new perspective for the research. Histhought contains the intrinsic rational thinking and the spirit of tolerance. Secondly,Radbruch’s theories will be linked with the construction of the rule of law. At last, it willpointed out the important role his thinking played in the German construction of rule of law,as well as the important inspiration to the legal construction of China.The conclusion is to indicate the reason of writing this article, and to emphasize theauthor’s point of view further.