Can Law Cease to Exist? On the Ontological Foundations of the Atrophy of Law

Abstract

 It is obvious that law is a part of man’s social reality. Moreover, the basic historical information is such that a civilization’s condition remains closely tied to the law; wherever law loses power, human associative life also disintegrates. Nevertheless, a very long time ago, that is, in the poetic and mythological visions of the world contained in Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι and Metamorphoseon, the law was depicted as something that appeared in interpersonal relationships only after a certain moment; as such, the law is something that man does not necessarily need. What is more, the spiritus movens of anarchist thought, currently present in the broadly understood philosophical discourse, is the postulate of the abolition (or death) of the law. Is this postulate feasible, however? Is it possible that in the future there will be no law and people will still exist? The subject of the research collected in the article is a solution to this problem. However, I will not try to formulate and justify it, nor will I present the solutions worked out or suggested so far. Instead, I will take up the problem of how the findings regarding the facts that denote the assumptions of the question "can law cease to exist among people?" determine the solution (i.e. ontological theory) of the question of the possibility of law disappearing. In other words, in this article, I will discuss the existential foundations of the atrophy of law.