Rafael Domingo

The Crisis of International Law

This paper delves into the reasons for the current crisis in the traditional international law system, considering how the system developed through the centuries in order to respond to the needs and circumstances of past historical epochs, as well as how the system is no longer capable of meeting the unique developments and needs of life in the Third Millennium. We consider the fundamental problems of a state-based international law that, rather than focusing on the prime actor and focus of the law, the human person and his inherent dignity, concentrates on and gives enormous power to the artificial construct of the nation-state, and its animating principles of sovereignty and over-dependence on territoriality. This inborn defect in the system, that of focusing on the nation-state, was imported wholesale into the United Nations system, ultimately rendering it incapable of meeting the basic security, social and economic needs of our world which longs for a true global community of persons. The nation-state paradigm, as well as the United Nations system, needs to be essentially and profoundly reformed. New institutions having real global power need to be set up to meet the requirements of our globalized world, especially as regards defending human rights from the incessant assault from both state and non-state actors.

Un Siglo De Derecho Romano En Espana (Roman Law in Spain (1939-1995))

Spanish Abstract: Se analiza la aportancion espanola al conocimiento del derecho romano desde el final de la guerra civil espanola (1936-1939) hasta 1995. English Abstract: The author explores the contribution of Spanish Roman law professors to the development of Roman Law from the end of the Spanish Civil War to 1995.

The Metalegal God

This paper deals with the relation between God and the secular legal systems of Western liberal democracies. It provides a normative argument for the compatibility of God and secular legal reasoning. In our age, in which believing in God is no longer socially axiomatic and the right to religious freedom protects all kinds of theistic and non-theistic religious beliefs, creeds, and first philosophies, it seems contrary to religious neutrality for secular legal systems to single out God. This paper instead argues that, although God and religion are inextricably intertwined, they affect the legal system in different ways because they are ontologically different. God cannot be reduced to a mere component of theistic religion. This paper argues that a proper understanding of secularization might call for keeping God outside the legal system but not for driving God out of the public sphere of democratic societies. Secular legal systems are not atheist legal systems. Secular legal systems are legal systems ‘without religion’ but not ‘without God.’ Secularization implies some degree of minimal recognition of God as a metalegal concept. The specific degree of recognition of God appropriate for any given political community depends on its cultural and communitarian identity and should be subject to the rules of democratic procedures and majorities. This is the metalegal God.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero)

Spanish Abstract: Semblanza intelectual del pensador romano. English Abstract: The author offers an intellectual profile of the Roman thinker Marcus Tullius Cicero.