In the article, Radbruch mentioned his conception of a valid law by dividing it into „five parts,” that is, five minutes. In the first minute, he says, a law, no matter how unjust, is a law. This gives force to arbitrary, cruel or criminal laws. In the second minute, he says that the law benefits people, and if arbitrary and illegal laws benefit people, they are considered good laws. Moreover, at the third minute, he affirms that the law is the will to exercise justice, and he defines justice as „non-discrimination in the judgment of a person”. In the fourth minute, he explains why bad laws must be given validity in order to create legal certainty. Finally, at the fifth minute, he says that natural law is above any legal act, and if a law violates natural law, it is invalid. He concludes by quoting some principles of the Bible and declares that one must obey God rather than man. Gustav Radbruch was a German jurist and legal philosopher and was considered a representative of legal positivism. The aforementioned article was written by him in German (Five Minutes Legal Philosophy) and later translated into English. 26 , no. 1 (2006), pp. 13-15 doi:10.1093/ojls/gqi042 Five Minutes of Legal Philosophy (1945)* GUSTAV RADBRUCH TRANSLATED BY BONNIE LITCHEVSKI PAULSON AND STANLEY L.
PAULSON First minute „An order is an order,” the soldier is told. „A law is a law,” says the lawyer. However, the soldier is not obliged, either by duty or by law, to obey an order which he knows to be a crime or misdemeanour, whereas the jurist – since the last of the natural jurists died a hundred years ago – has no such exceptions to the validity of a law or to the Recognizes the duty of obedience of his subordinates. A law is valid because it is a law, and it is a law if it has the power to prevail in the general course of events. This view of a law and its validity (we call it positivist theory) has left lawyers and people defenseless against arbitrary, cruel or criminal laws, no matter how extreme. Ultimately, positivist theory equates right with power; Law exists only where there is power. Second minute An attempt has been made to supplement or replace this principle with another: the law is what benefits people. This means that arbitrariness, breach of contract and illegality – as long as they only benefit the people – are law. In practice, this means that what state authorities consider economically advantageous is the law, including any despotic and arbitrary whim, which is not sanctioned by law or court. * „Five minutes of legal philosophy”, first published in the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung (Heidelberg), 12 September 1945, among others in Gustav Radbruch, Gesamtausgabe, 20 vols., Arthur Kaufmann (ed.), vol.
3: Rechtsphilosophie III, Winfried Hassemer (ed.) (Heidelberg: C. F. Müller, 1990) 78–9; in Radbruch, Rechtsphilosophie, Studienausgabe, Ralf Dreier and Stanley L. Paulson (Eds.) (Heidelberg: C. F. Müller, 2. Auflage, 2003) 209–10, 234 (Anmerkungen der Hrsg.); in Radbruch, Rechtsphilosophie, 4th–7th ed., Erik Wolf (ed.), 8th ed., Erik Wolf and Hans-Peter Schneider (eds.) (Stuttgart: K. F. Koehler, 1950–73); and under the title `Rechtsphilosophische Besinnung` in Radbruch, Der Mensch im Recht, Fritz von Hippel (ed.) (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1957) 105–7.
The translation is published with the kind permission of Ms. Dorothea Kaufmann (Munich). © The author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For approvals, please send an email to: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org This view of a law and its validity (we call it positivist theory) has left lawyers and people defenseless against arbitrary, cruel or criminal laws, no matter how extreme. Ultimately, positivist theory equates right with power; There is only one law where there is power. [Written by: Abhinav Gupta (Member, CLT) led by Mr.
S.K. Kaushik (Executive Director, CLT)]. „An order is an order,” the soldier is told. „A law is a law,” says the lawyer. However, the soldier is not obliged by duty or law to obey an order the subject of which he knows to be a crime or misdemeanour, while the jurist – since the last of the natural jurists died a hundred years ago – does not recognize such exceptions to the validity of a law or to the obedience of those subject to it. A law is valid because it is a law, and it is a law if it has the power to prevail in the general course of events. Don`t have an Oxford Academic account yet? Register Gustav Radbruch, Five Minutes of Legal Philosophy (1945), Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Volume 26, Number 1, Spring 2006, pages 13-15, doi.org/10.1093/ojls/gqi042 Members of the Society can access a journal in one of the following ways: If you do not have a business account or have forgotten your username or password, Please contact your company. Oxford Academic is home to a variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content you are trying to access. If you think you should have access to this content, please contact your librarian.
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See below. To understand why Radbruch believed that arbitrary, cruel, and evil laws should be validated in some cases, and his belief in natural law, the Center for Legal Theory recommends „Five Minutes of Legal Philosophy” (pp. 13-15, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Vol. 26, No. 1, 2006) as essential reading. For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more (t: Bonnie Litschewski Paulson and Stanley L. Paulson) Enter your library card number to sign in. If you are unable to log in, please contact your librarian.