Inverting the Norm

Law as the Form of Common Practice

by Trevor N. Wedman

Book cover: Inverting the Norm

Extent: 191 pages

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Subjects: Law, Philosophy

Series: Rechtstheorie / Legal Theory

Series volume number: 5

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(September 2022)

ISBN: 9783161616914

9.09 x 6.06 inches

Price: $118.00

In stock

Trevor N. Wedman shows that sovereignty, subjectivity and normativity, or the sovereign, the subject and the (legal) norm are three wholly interdependent concepts: the meaning of each of these concepts entails the other two. The title Inverting the Norm refers to an attempt at switching our perspective on legal n


Trevor N. Wedman seeks to understand the key assumptions underlying modern legal theory. Going back to Hobbes, but also making use of the developments in the theory of action and language philosophy over the past century, he breaks down the static conception of the state into one dependent on the actions and reflections of individuals, i.e., its citizens. He develops a social ontological theory of the law, in which the law is not taken as a mere given, but as an institutional fact. He criticizes both the Kelsenian conception of the Basic Norm and the Hartian notion of the Rule of Recognition as failing to account for the agency of individuals. The author turns to the work of one of Kelsen’s contemporaries, Felix Somlo, in order to develop an alternative conception of the law that operates not from the top down, but from the bottom up. In this way, the law itself comes into focus as that which results from the reasoned jurisprudential reflection on the reality of meanings and actions.

  • By (author) Trevor N Wedman