Isonomía - Revista de teoría y filosofía del derecho

Amicus curiae. Consideraciones sobre el control de constitucionalidad de las reformas constitucionales.

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Amicus curiae: Considerations on the Judicial Review of Constitutional Amendments

The goal of this amicus curiae, submitted in October 2024 to the Supreme Court of Mexico by fifty professors working in the domain of comparative constitutional law, is to contribute to the debate on the September 2024 judicial reform by providing information on the criteria applicable to cases where the constitutionality of constitutional amendments is examined. The amicus refers to the practice whereby constitutional courts examine the validity of amendments on grounds of procedural defects, substantive defects, or both, with the aim of distinguishing regular exercises of amending power from abusive or spurious exercises. The amicus also reconstructs existing case law on the issue of the validity of constitutional reforms in Mexico and argues that, in the absence of conclusive criteria and given the nature of the judicial reform from the perspective of preserving the basic rules of democracy, it is necessary for the Supreme Court to again assess the issue and clarify the limits of the amendment power as a constituted power.

El principio de no responsabilidad de los abogados y el dilema de la heroicidad

Hugo Omar Seleme — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Principle of Lawyers’ Nonaccountability and the Heroism Dilema

There is a tension between the Principle of Nonaccountability, which holds that lawyers cannot be morally criticized for the clients they defend, and the practice of praising some lawyers as heroes. Bradley Wendel frames this as a dilemma: either we abandon judgments of heroism or reject the Principle of Nonaccountability. This paper argues that Wendel’s “heroism dilemma” is either superfluous or false. By offering a new interpretation of the principle, the paper introduces a revised version of the dilemma and resolves it by using the concept of supererogatory conduct to explain judgments of heroism.

En contra del supuesto derecho a la objeción de conciencia

Faviola Rivera Castro — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Against an alleged right to conscientious objection

Contemporary debates on a possible right to conscientious objection presuppose that such a right follows from freedom of conscience, which is the freedom to affirm, and to live according to, ethical, philosophical or religious convictions. The right to conscientious objection would be a general right to be exempt from complying with institutional obligations when the latter are contrary to one’s own convictions of conscience. The main thesis I defend is that the alleged right to conscientious objection cannot be derived from the constitutional protection of freedom of conscience. This alleged right goes beyond the latter in demanding the removal of institutional obstacles to the individual aim of living by one’s own convictions of conscience. After explaining why the constitutional protection of freedom of conscience does not require such a removal, I conclude that instead of a general right to conscientious objection, there can be only requests for exemption from complying with legal requirements from considerations of conscience. I explain that such requests can only be granted when exemptions do not affect he rights of third parties, do not frustrate purposes of public interest that demand strict compliance with the law, and do not entail discriminatory actions forbidden by law.

Razón práctica y significado de las normas jurídicas

Juan-Ramón Fallada-García-Valle — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Practical Reason and Meaning of Legal Norms. A Criticism from Perspectivism to Atienza and Ruiz Manero’s Theory

Departing from the debate between Atienza and Ruiz Manero on the one hand, and Mendonca, Moreso and Navarro on the other, on the characterization of the types of legal norms and their relationship with practical reasoning, Atienza and Manero’s thesis that the meaning of legal norms is determined by the legal authority is criticized. To this end, the theory of the legal statements of these authors is examined in connection with Atienza’s theory of argumentation. Then, that thesis is criticized for its unidirectional, univocal and monistic approach to law. Finally, it is concluded that a more complex and accurate understanding of legal norms requires considering the full range of their possible perspectives, including those of their addressees.

orementioned debate is exposed and both positions are examined. Then, that thesis is criticized for its unidirectional, univocal and monistic approach to law. Finally, it is concluded that a more complex and accurate understanding of legal norms requires considering the full range of their possible aspects, including all those that may be adopted by their addressees.

Fine-tunnig an inferential model to analyze the specification operation in judgment

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Fine-Tuning an Inferential Model to Analyze the Specification Operation in Judgment

We present an inferential model that enables the analysis and reconstruction of reasoning in rulings that utilize indeterminate norms. To achieve this, we focus on studying a specific case involving the abandonment of therapeutic treatment for a child with terminal cancer (Agüero San Juan et al., 2024; Zúñiga, 2009). The case under analysis illustrates a set of interpretative and specification operations applied to norms, aimed at delimiting judicial authority to mandate medical treatment. The methodology involves analyzing the methodological operations conducted by the judge and their lexical-semantic expression. The results highlight the need for an analytical process that identifies key decisions in the specification process, allowing a clear understanding of judicial reasoning and reducing text opacity. The conclusions examine the implications of this approach to studying judicial decisions in civil law systems, contrasting it with the legal policy of plain language

Análisis conceptual de las flexibilidades del sistema de patentes

Eduardo Vodanovic Undurraga — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Conceptual Analysis of Patent System Flexibilities

Because of their high prices, patented drugs are becoming increasingly difficult to acquire by individuals and health budgets. Faced with this access problem, flexibilities of the patent system are commonly cited as a plausible legal tool to be used, especially by developing countries.Two aspects of these flexibilities are usually highlighted. On the one hand, they comprise a set of mechanisms (such as compulsory licenses, parallel imports or the definition of patenting requirements) aimed at tempering the outcomes of patent law in various ways. On the other hand, there is also the common idea that it is the national member states of the World Trade Organization who should define the requirements entailed by each mechanism. However, in addition to these features, it is not sufficiently clear what else they have in common and what distinguishes each mechanism.The paper shows the advantage of carrying out a theoretical-conceptual analysis of the flexibilities of the patent system by understanding most of them as exceptions of the enforcement of rights. The paper provides a conceptual framework based on a specific understanding of patent rights and the analysis of norms that give a greater clarity to a topic that has been under-theorized.

Sobre las definiciones estipulativas en conceptos jurídicos de amplia trayectoria histórica

Seren Ataoglu Colonnello — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

On Stipulative Definitions in Legal Concepts with a Long Historical Trajectory

This paper proposes a distinction between five types of stipulative definitions. The usefulness of this typology lies in its ability to capture the lexical and/or semantic changes of legal terms and/or concepts across two or more temporal points. To illustrate this proposal, the concepts of iniuria, culpa and damnum iniuria datum are analyzed within the context of the Lex Aquilia, a law considered key to the conception of extracontractual civil liability. The conclusions of this work are as follows. First, the analysis of the trajectory of legal concepts requires more refined distinctions. Second, the proposed typology offers a valuable tool for contemporary jurists to reintroduce and adapt these ancient concepts with greater clarity.

Impact of Society 5.0 on Women’s Employment

Fahd Raza, Abtar — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This paper explores the impact of Society 5.0 on women’s employment, developing a conceptual framework to understand both the challenges and opportunities presented by this super-smart society. Society 5.0 aims to integrate advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) into daily life, promising a more inclusive and sustainable future. However, this digital transformation also poses significant risks, particularly for women employed in sectors vulnerable to automation. The systematic review of the literature reveals that while women face challenges such as job displacement and the reinforcement of gender inequalities, Society 5.0 also offers new opportunities in STEM fields and more flexible work environments. The conceptual framework highlights the importance of mediating factors such as access to education, workplace inclusion, and policy interventions in determining women’s outcomes in the digital economy. The paper concludes with policy recommendations and identifies key areas for future research, including sector-specific impacts and the effectiveness of gender-sensitive interventions. This study contributes to the growing discourse on gender and technology by providing a roadmap for achieving gender equality in the context of Society 5.0.

Il realismo morale di Bruno Celano

Marco Brigaglia — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Bruno Celano’s Moral Realism

In the 2000s, Bruno Celano began to outline a peculiar variant of moral realism, which he called ‘polytheistic moral realism’. Polytheistic realism is characterized by (1) a realist thesis - there are ‘objective’ moral values; (2) a pluralist thesis – moral values or goods are multiple, largely incommensurable, and in conflict with each other; (3) a particularist thesis – it is not possible to predetermine in advance the combination of morally relevant properties; moral reasoning has an irreducibly particularist character. In this article, I will reconstruct the genesis of polytheistic realism, its fundamental traits, and the role it played in the development of Celano’s thought.