ABSTRACT
The philosophy of positive law, or philosophy of legal change as its particular version, is supposed to explain political ideas and claims that are part of law’s justification, and put them into the context of legal institutions functioning in a social reality. The belief that the real impact that philosophy has on existing law can be systematically examined was inspired by the work Czeslaw Martyniak, a Polish legal philosopher from the early twentieth century. The philosophy of positive law, so conceived, should be discerned from the application of the history of ideas in law. The philosophy of legal change aims at recognizing the normative pluralism that marks the contemporary legal, globalized world, and tries to provide tools to sort it out, or systematize. The opposition of public reason and background culture is not sufficient to fully interpret legal processes or laws themselves through political philosophy.
