Abstract
Much of modern legal thinking relies on the separation of human convention (nomos) and nature (physis), a distinction that often serves as a basis for further separations of law and justice and law and power. Commenting and elaborating upon some of the views and analyses provided by Johan van der Walt in his new book on the concept of liberal democratic law, I will explain why I think that we need an understanding of law that transcends the nomos-physis distinction. While laying out my argument, I will draw important inspiration from various sources of pre-sophistic Greek thought in which nomos and physis are essentially interconnected. Texts to be interpreted and discussed include some key passages from Sophocles’ Antigone and the archaic lyric poetry of Pindar.
Biography
Lukas van den Berge was educated in law and classics at the University of Amsterdam and completed his dissertation on the theory of Dutch administrative law in 2016. He is currently a lecturer in the department of constitutional and administrative law and legal theory. Recent publications include ‘Law, King of All: Schmitt, Agamben, Pindar’, Law and Humanities 13 (2), 2019, pp. 198-222, ‘Sophocles’ Antigone and the Promise of Ethical Life: Tragic Ambiguity and the Pathologies of Reason’, Law and Humanities 11 (2), pp. 205-227 and ‘Montesquieu and Judicial Review of Proportionality in Administrative Law: Rethinking the Separation of Powers in the Neoliberal Era’, European Journal of Legal Studies 10 (1), 2017, pp. 203-233.