The pure theory of law according to Arthur Schopenhauer

Few philosophers and few jurists were interested in Schopenhauer's original philosophy of law. The thinker of the Will devotes himself mainly to this subject in § 62 of his major work, The world as will and as representation, in certain paragraphs of his dissertation on The foundation of morality, as well as in a short text of Parerga and Paralipomena , entitled ¿Ethics, Law and Politics¿.In this essay, through a reading that aims to be as faithful as possible to the text, we will identify and define what Schopenhauer himself calls his "pure theory of law", a theory within which are articulated, in a rather complex and unheard-of way, natural law, of moral origin, and positive law, instituted by the State. This articulation is taking shape in particular thanks to a deep reflection on the notions of unjust, just, selfishness, and pity. Naturally, the whole is inscribed in the metaphysics of the Will so specific to the German thinker; we shall therefore recall the great moments of this general metaphysics, without which the theory of law remains indecipherable.