ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the antithetic models as points of reference that may yield a heuristic tool. It discusses the philosophical reasons for change is always being derived from social holism and social individualism, constituting interplay between individual rights and common interests. The chapter focuses on the pivotal aspect of justification, which is the role of legal authority in the process of change. It argues that being of profoundly political character, legal change always demands some philosophical justification. The “legal determinist” standpoint is historically connected with the ontological natural law theory presented by a part of ancient Greek thinkers such as Aristotle and especially the Stoics, for whom the ontologically understood natural law always determines the positive law. The conservative-communitarian point of view, empirical reasons and directions of legal changes are “encoded” in existing historical legal institutions. The limited ability for an autonomous creation of legal values and rules excludes every form of “revolutionary” and centrally planned changes.
