COMMUNITY OF PRINCIPLES AND THE PRINCIPLE OF RESPONSABILITY: JUDGE HERCULES CONFUSED BEFORE A THREATENED NATURE

Abstract

This study begins from the legal theory of Ronald Dworkin, a thinker responsible for one of the strongest criticism against legal positivism and its claim for independence between Law and Morals. Then, the article highlights how the linkage between Law and Moral proposed by Dworkin is deeply dependent on political liberalism, questioning whether there would be room in the Dworkinian theory for the endorsement of an ethical approach that transcends the individualistic matrices of liberalism. As an example of ethical doctrine that goes beyond liberalism, Hans Jonas’ "principle of responsibility" is brought to light. According to Jonas and under the present technological progress, humanity must assimilate a new ethics that is able to transcend the relationship between people who are close to each other and ensure the very future of the planet and the human being, threatened by the new technologies. The final objective is to proceed to a bibliographical research in which we discuss the possibility, or not, of the assimilation of Jonas theory within the "Law as Integrity" as developed by Dworkin, and, hence, its inclusion in the activity of his famous judge Hercules, notably little concerned about environmental protection issues, which are, under his view, matters of politics and not of principle.