The book tackles significant problems that each historian of law faces in the light of present decline of philosophical, ethical and ideological canons in the overall context of western civilization. The issues discussed in the book manifest themselves in the question whether the «democratic turn» is a real or just a virtue one.

Bartosz Wojciechowski is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law, University of Łód´z (Poland) and a judge in the District Administrative Court. He has published and co-edited several books, most recently (2010). Piotr W. Juchacz is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Program Coordinator in the Center for Public Policy at Adam Mickiewicz University, Pozna´n (Poland). He published two monographs: (2006) and . (2004). He also co-edited ten collected volumes. Karolina M. Cern is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy, Chair of Ethics, at Adam Mickiewicz University, Pozna´n (Poland). She is an author of two monographs: (2007); and together with E. Nowak (2008). She also co-edited five collected volumes.

Contents: Karolina M. Cern/Bartosz Wojciechowski: Postmetaphysical approach to moral autonomy and justification of the thesis of the necessary relations between the legal and moral discourse – Marco Antonio Oliveira de Azevedo: Commands and Claims – Maciej Pichlak: The Autonomy from Morality as a Moral Claim: on Some Paradox of Legal Positivism – Martin Škop: Legal Rules, Moral Norms and Arbitrariness – Barbara Weber: Between Rationality (Habermas) and Sympathy (Rorty): Two Pragmatic Perspectives on Human Rights – Sebastian Sykuna/Jerzy Zajadło: Towards a New Theory of Hard Cases – Massimo Leone: Citizens of a Lesser God - Religious Minorities and the Legal Discourse of Multi-Cultural Democracies: the Case of Canada – Marta Soniewicka: How Dangerous Can the Sterilized Needle Be? Torture, Terrorism, and the Self-Refutation of the Liberal-Democratic State – Paul Bouissac: The Legal Status of Animals: From Perpetrators of Wrongs to Victims of Abuses – Piotr W. Juchacz: Public Hearing: On the Dangers of Adversarial Participation – José Manuel Aroso Linhares: Law in/as Literature as an alternative humanistic discourse. The Unavoidable Resistance to Legal Scientific Pragmatism or the Fertile Promise of a Communitas Without Law? – Leszek Leszczyński: Legal Certainty and Legal Discretion in the Statutory Legal Law – Lin Yuchuan: Confucianism and the Localization of Chinese Political Democracy – Agnieszka Choduń: Influence of Internationalisms on communicativeness of legal discourse – Romina Amicolo: Legal Rules in the Name of Democracy and Democracy in the Name of Legal Rules: Parallel Deaths of Socrates and Julius Caesar.