Recently I gave a short class for the IUP programme at Universidad ITESM campus Guadalajara, in such class, we covered somehow the subject philosophy of law, but, in such courses, you cannot go deep and stop the sufficient time to a deep exchange of conversations with questions of what is the real meaning of Law and as well what Philosophy truly is. The special problem resides when the class is not comprised of lawyers.
When someone says “it’s not right” or “that is not fair”, how did the arrive at such understanding of what is fair or not, or what is right or not, same-sex marriage some people say it is not natural, thus, must be regarded as illegal, or contrariwise, why must be permitted and therefore declared legal?, why do they have such a right?
Ethical problems, moral problems, and legal problems, to make a full stop to each question from different perspectives would have required just a semester, instead, we just did a stop and go. Six main theories were covered, of course, natural law, then legal positivism, then a fascinating example of the moral integrity of law developed by Dworkin, then an analysis of rights and justice, law and society, critical legal theory, and the economic analysis of law.
But, why does this must be covered in a program directed to international business students? I do believe that is for the benefit of everyone to understand that law, as it is, is not quite a rigid system of words put to paper, rather, it is an ever-changing system that evolves or changes with the course of the time, depends on society and may change or not, affected by the particular views that dominate a society in a given time.
Time and space change, what is legal today may be regarded as illegal in the future, or what was illegal in the past can become legal in the present, and so on. Thus, the theories that were pointed out help in doing that, in explaining the legal phenomena that occur, not to justify it, but to understand it.
Derecho Internacional y otras ilusiones 