On Theoretical Aspects of the Concept of Rational Lawmaker: Between Optimization and Idealization of the Legislation

Abstract

The concept of the rational legislator plays an important role in the theory and philosophy of law, both in its historical-doctrinal and contemporary dimensions. It occurs in two main versions. The first one is associated with optimization models, which define the conditions for treating the legislative practice as a rational activity and the legislator as a rational actor. The second version, associated with the so-called Poznan Theoretical School, expresses itself in the assumption of the legislator’s rationality, which is a-factual in nature, both in terms of subject matter and objects of activity. It plays an important role in the process of legal interpretation, which is particularly evident in relation to the operative (judicial) interpretation. The study shifts the scope of the assumption of rationality of the legislator from the subjective point to the result of legislative actions in the context of expanding the set of sources (carriers) of law beyond legal regulations and binding it to a broad category of the legal order, including the actions of the judiciary and expanding the set of carriers of law to include court rulings and extra-legal criteria used in the processes of law application. This gives the idealization assumption about the rationality of legal order a real dimension, a potential element of which is the judicial “correction” of the results of legislative activity.