The idea for this volume originated in the aftermath of a panel organized by the editors
at the XXVIII World Congress of the International Association for the
Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR) in the summer of 2017. Although
the title of the panel was based on Georg Jellinek’s notion of a “Normative Force to
the Factual,” the panelists came up with a broad range of ideas revolving around the
topic so defined. Thus, the papers presented in Lisbon addressed not only Jellinek’s
theory of how facts may merge into norms but also the dichotomy of “is” and
“ought” according to Kelsenian theory, the connection between law and force, the
question of how discourse shapes our understanding of the normative sphere, and
the fundamental problems of the concept of “normativity.”
The diversity of these accounts reassured us that it would be useful to pursue
further the topic of the interrelation of facts and norms and to ask still more friends
and colleagues to join the conversation. We were pleased that so many of them
accepted our invitation and we are even more pleased to present the result of our
common efforts in this volume.