An attempt to interpret global law

Abstract

The authors reconstruct the key elements of the conception of global law proposed by Rafael Domingo, a world-recognised Spanish Roman law specialist, offer its interpretation, as well as recommend application of that law in the creation of a conception of material sources of law. The starting point for the discussion on the above is a critical assessment of subject-reductionism in public international law, and the principles of territoriality and sovereignty in particular. The authors argue that overcoming the current regulatory and academic crisis in international law will not be possible unless its existing paradigm is changed. Anthroparchy – a term coined by the authors – should become a constructive element of the new paradigm, meaning that a person with its intrinsic dignity and equality should be put in place of the state’s sovereignty. The characteristics of such person, relevant for the axiological conditioning of the legal system, is then proposed, introducing to the legal deliberations an interdisciplinary approach to philosophical anthropology. The presented conception belongs to non-positivism in law, and its explanatory force concerns questions of law’s teleology and autonomy with regard to state.