Abstract

The present essay intends to precise a Hegel's critic of Natural Law and of Positive Law and to determine, hence, a proper Hegelian doctrine of Law. In this sense, our hypothesis is that it is in the context of the Sittlichkeit doctrine, that Law must be understood according to Hegel. Namely, in his Lessons on the philosophy of history, Hegel defines Sittlichkeit like an “order of the substantial thing (…) in such a way that all singular subject has the universality by intention, spirit and ethical custom, and that is in and by this spirit which it wants, it acts, it lives and it enjoys, even though it is his nature, that is to say his nature second and spiritual one”. Therefore Hegel understands that legal normativity must be included and be understood in a wide field, constituted by the praxis of a community that forms an immanent field of objectivity that daily structure the life of individuals. Far from a separation between duty and being, Hegel calls us to understand the form how the norm is present in the heart of the world of the life like a reconciliation of the rational with the real in the form of effectiveness.