On the iuspositivism that we ought to leave behind. A iusnaturalistic critic to “dejemos atrás el positivismo jurídico” by Atienza and Ruiz Manero

Abstract

Through the confrontation of Atienza's and Ruiz Manero's thesis proposed in the article called "Lets leave legal positivism behind" (Dejemos atrás el positivismo jurídico) the author seeks to prove -by answering the following questions: what kind of positivism should be leave behind? Why? and how?- that there are weaknesses in iuspositivism to explain the legal reali­ty. This weaknesses are more clear in iuspositivim's ethical skepticism and as it denies the existence of an anthropological - metaphysical natural law.

On the other hand the author shows how those weaknesses are also com­mon in constructivism's attempts to overcome iuspositivism so at the end neither of those conceptual schemes are able to explain Human Rights as more than just an inexcusable ethical - legal debts based in the ontologi­cal dignity of all human beings.