FAÇADE LEGITIMATION? ARGOMENTAZIONE E DECISION MAKING NELL’ "ON LAW AND JUSTICE"

The present paper focuses on four key-concepts of Alf Ross’s opus magnum: the normative ideology, the prediction of judicial behaviour, the sources of law, the legal reasoning. In the wake of some criticism raised by Stig Jørgensen and Preben Stuer Lauridsen it follows the conclusion that Ross, by adhering to the main tenets of Logical positivism and so emphasizing that the juridical argumentation is nothing but a façade legitimation aimed at supporting belief in the objectivity of the decision, precludes himself from the worthwhile possibility of constructing a theory of legal argumentation.