Alf Niels Christian Ross (10 June 1899 – 17 August 1979) was a
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
jurist
A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...
,
legal philosopher
Philosophy of law is a branch of philosophy that examines the nature of law and law's relationship to other systems of norms, especially ethics and political philosophy. It asks questions like "What is law?", "What are the criteria for legal vali ...
and judge of the
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...
(1959–1971). He is best known as one of the leading figures of
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
n
legal realism
Legal realism is a naturalistic approach to law. It is the view that jurisprudence should emulate the methods of natural science, i.e., rely on empirical evidence. Hypotheses must be tested against observations of the world.
Legal realists be ...
. His debate in 1959 with the prominent British legal philosopher
H. L. A. Hart
Herbert Lionel Adolphus Hart (18 July 190719 December 1992), known simply as H. L. A. Hart, was an English legal philosopher. He was Professor of Jurisprudence (University of Oxford), Professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford University an ...
– which began in the ''
Cambridge Law Journal
''The Cambridge Law Journal'' is a peer-reviewed academic law journal, and the principal academic publication of the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge. It is published by Cambridge University Press, and is the longest established university ...
'' (Vol. 17) – was important in framing the modern conflict between
legal positivism
Legal positivism (as understood in the Anglosphere) is a school of thought of analytical jurisprudence developed largely by legal philosophers during the 18th and 19th centuries, such as Jeremy Bentham and John Austin. While Bentham and Austin de ...
and
legal realism
Legal realism is a naturalistic approach to law. It is the view that jurisprudence should emulate the methods of natural science, i.e., rely on empirical evidence. Hypotheses must be tested against observations of the world.
Legal realists be ...
.
Biography
Education and academic career
Ross was born in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
as a son of
civil servant
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
Frederik Ross and graduated from
high school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
in 1917. Ross studied
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
at the
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...
graduating in 1922. He consequently worked in a
barrister’s office. In 1923, he commenced a study tour, which would last for two and a half years, visiting France, England and Austria, where he met and befriended fellow legal scholar,
Hans Kelsen
Hans Kelsen (; ; October 11, 1881 – April 19, 1973) was an Austrian jurist, legal philosopher and political philosopher. He was the author of the 1920 Austrian Constitution, which to a very large degree is still valid today. Due to the rise ...
. He spent 1928–1929 at the
Uppsala University
Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...
, receiving a doctoral degree in philosophy in 1929 under the supervision of
Axel Hägerström
Axel Anders Theodor Hägerström (6 September 1868, Vireda – 7 July 1939, Uppsala) was a Swedish philosopher.
Born in Vireda, Jönköping County, Sweden, he was the son of a Church of Sweden pastor. As student at Uppsala University, he gave ...
. In 1935, he was appointed to teach constitutional law at the University of Copenhagen.
''On Law and Justice''
In 1953, Ross published his most famous book ''Om Ret og Retfærdighed'' (which he would later publish in English, under the title ''On Law and Justice'').
In this book, he states that there is no a priori validity to give the law some special position. Experience serves as a guideline. This means, for example, that the famous dictum ‘suum cuique tribuere’, ‘to give to everyone his own’, has no meaning until it has been determined what actually belongs to someone, which means that this is a matter of
begging the question
In classical rhetoric and logic, begging the question or assuming the conclusion (Latin: ') is an informal fallacy that occurs when an argument's premises assume the truth of the conclusion, instead of supporting it.
For example:
* "Green is t ...
(''On Law and Justice'', § 64 (p. 276)). His determination not to rely on anything but the facts leads to statements as the following: “The legal rule is neither true nor false; it is a directive.” (''On Law and Justice'', § 2 (p. 2)). Furthermore, the norm is directed at judges rather than citizens (''On Law and Justice'', § 7 (p. 33)).
In this line of thought, he opposes
natural law
Natural law ( la, ius naturale, ''lex naturalis'') is a system of law based on a close observation of human nature, and based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independently of positive law (the express enacte ...
-approaches: “Like a harlot, natural law is at the disposal of everyone. The ideology does not exist that cannot be defended by an appeal to the law of nature. And, indeed, how can it be otherwise, since the ultimate basis for every natural right lies in a private direct insight, an evident contemplation, an intuition. Cannot my intuition be just as good as yours? Evidence as a criterion of truth explains the utterly arbitrary character of the metaphysical assertions. It raises them up above any force of inter-subjective control and opens the door wide to unrestricted invention and dogmatics.” (''On Law and Justice'', § 58 (p. 261).)
Works
*"Imperatives and Logic", ''Theoria'' vol. 7, 1941, pp. 53–71
*''Towards a Realistic Jurisprudence: A Criticism of the Dualism in Law'' (1946)
*''A Textbook in International Law'' (1947)
*''Constitution of the United Nations'' (1951)
*''Why Democracy?'' (1952)
*"Tû-Tû", ''Harvard Law Review'' vol. 70, Issue 5, March 1957, pp. 812–825. Originally published in ''Festskrift til Henry Ussing''. O. Borum, K. Ilium (eds.). Kobenhavn Juristforbundet, 1951
*''On Law and Justice'' (1959)
*''The United Nations: Peace and Progress'' (1966)
*''Directives and Norms'' (1968)
*"On Self-Reference and a Puzzle in Constitutional Law", ''Mind'' (1969)
*''On Guilt, Responsibility and Punishment'' (1975)
References
Bibliography
*
*''Evald, Jens. Alf Ross: a life'' Djoef Publishing (2014)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Alf Niels Christian
1899 births
1979 deaths
Danish jurists
Judges of the European Court of Human Rights
People from Copenhagen
Academic staff of the University of Copenhagen
Uppsala University alumni
Philosophers of law
Moral philosophers
Danish judges of international courts and tribunals