In The Critique of Pure Reason, Kant claims that from the time of Aristotle
until his time, logic had been “unable to take a single step forward, and
therefore seems to all appearance to be finished and complete.”1 Moreover,
he adds that some alleged improvements were only minor changes or, even
worse, confusing and full of misunderstandings. But contrary to this vision,
the last two centuries have witnessed an extraordinary rebirth of logic. New
approaches to classical problems, as well as new horizons opened to logical
exploration (e.g., modal logic, the logic of relevance, the logic of action), have
gained a legitimate reputation in contemporary philosophy.
One of these new logical domains is deontic logic, the branch of logic
that offers a formal analysis of normative discourse. Law is one of the most
important normative fields, and deontic logic constitutes an invaluable aid for
legal scholars and philosophers in the analysis of fundamental legal concepts.
More specifically – as we try to show – deontic logic can be regarded as
an essential tool to understand both the systematic structure of law and its
dynamic nature. Undoubtedly, deontic logic is also useful for the evaluation
of moral discourse, but in this book we limit our attention to the legal domain,
with very few and merely incidental remarks on morality.