Constitutionalism and Legal Reasoning

Preface.Part I: Law as Constitution. 1. Rhetoric and Practical Reason. 1.1. Two Paradigms of Right Reasoning. 1. 2. From Fundamental Law to Social Contract and Self-Institution. 1. 3. Modern Constitutionalism.2. Constitutionalism and Legal Positivism. 2.1. Law as Fact. 2.2. Legislation and Sovereignty. 2.3. The Raise of German Public Law. 2.4. Legal Positivism and Constitutionalism. 3. From State Law to Constitutional State, or, from Herrschaft to 'Discourse'. 3.1. Normativity and Facticity. 3.2. Normativism, Institutionalism, Decisionism. 3.3. 'Wille zur Verfassung', Will of Constitution. Part II: Legal Argumentation and Concepts of Law. 1. Rhetoric and Practical Reason. 1.1. Two Paradigms of Right Reasoning. 1.2. Theoretical Versus Practical Rationality.2. Legal Reasoning Redeemed. 2.1. Rehabilitation of Practical Reason: the Topic. 2.2. The 'New Rhetoric' School. 2.3. Philosophical Hermeneutics. 3.Contemporary Doctrines. 3.1. Neil MacCormick’s Formalist Model. 3.2. Ronald Dworkin’s Interpretive Turn. 3.3. Discourse Theory. 4. Law as Discourse and Constitution. 4.1. Morality Reconnected to Law. 4.2. A New Model of Democracy.Part III: The Practice of Law and Legal Ethics. 1. 'Jurists, bad Christians'. 1.1. Lawyers According to the Tradition. 1.2. The Legal Positivist Myth. 1.3. Plato, Kant and Modern Jurisprudence. 2. Ambiguity of Deontological Rules. 2.1. Deontological Codes. 2.2. Civil law and Common Law. 3. Two Opposed Paradigms. 3.1. The Legalistic Approach. 3.2. The Moralistic Approach. 4. Legal Ethics and the Concept of Law. 4.1. The 'Moral Amorality' Thesis. 4.2. The 'Full Morality' Thesis. 4.3. A Pragmatist Alternative and the Radbruch Formula. Epilogue. Appendix A: Natural Law: 'Exclusive' Versus 'Inclusive'. Appendix B: Robert Alexy’s Constitutional Rights Theory.