Abstract

SERPE, Alessandro. Arguing Based on Human Rights: Taking Balancing Seriously. Utopìa y Praxis Latinoamericana [online]. 2010, vol.15, n.51, pp.45-56. ISSN 1315-5216.

Today’s constitutions of countries such as our owns contain a large set of norms, principles and values. In the present work I put forward some arguments in favor of a theory of argumentation backed on a crossover reflection upon the concepts of rationality, values and conflicts. By considering rights as arguments and the balancing an interpretative technique, one might imply that legal reasoning is aimed at the construction of decision-justifying platforms. To reflect upon the various theoretical platforms is to take the balancing as well as the constitutional contents into serious and not to pitifully undermine the principle of sovereignty.

Keywords : Balancing; rationality; conflicts; values; legal reasoning.