Law vs. Politics and the Political: Does the Instrumentalization of Law Have a Chance to Restore Its Reputation?

Abstract

In the paper, the author attempts to “disenchant” the negative image of the instrumentalization of law that has been formed in the theoretical and legal literature. Polish jurisprudence, due to the experience of the so-called ‘real socialism’, had particular reasons to be prejudiced against this issue. The text makes use of theoretical inspirations coming from outside of jurisprudence (John Dewey’s philosophy of pragmatic instrumentalism, Max Weber’s concept of politics, Chantal Mouffe’s concept of the political) and strictly legal theories of instrumentalisation (Sanne Taekema’s pluralistic-responsive variant, Wiesław Lang’s reconstructionist approach). The main aim of the paper is to change the approach to the instrumentalization of law: to replace the traditional question about the limits of instrumentalization of the law made by the state with a question about how the law – without risking the loss of its fundamental values and functions – can cooperate with the natural tendency of people to instrumentalize their behaviour in the conditions of a democratic, pluralistic society. The theses of the paper are set in the liberal vision of social order, however with a significant correction consisting in referring to the assumptions of pragmatism and post-structuralism. In the conclusion, I also point out the problems that can be caused in jurisprudence by the application of certain concepts from the area of political theory based on post-structuralist assumptions.