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Norms that Confer Competence
Author(s) -
Spaak Torben
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
ratio juris
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.344
H-Index - 10
eISSN - 1467-9337
pISSN - 0952-1917
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9337.00225
Subject(s) - competence (human resources) , duty , norm (philosophy) , epistemology , law and economics , psychology , sociology , law , social psychology , political science , philosophy
The author maintains that norms that confer competence (or power) on persons should be understood as duty–imposing norms addressed to legal officials, rather than as special competence norms whose sole function is to confer competence, and which are addressed to the competence–holders themselves. The argument is that only duty–imposing norms are genuine norms in the sense that they give complete reasons for action. En route to this conclusion the author analyzes norms in terms of reasons for action, and considers the problem of norm–individuation and the action–guiding capacity of norms.