A Strange Kind of Artifact

This chapter argues that, assuming that law is a kind of artifact (which is a reasonable assumption, when one excludes that it is a natural kind), it is interesting to inquire into the particular features of it. Indeed it is a strange kind of artifact, for it has a set of properties that are quite different from those of everyday artifacts such as tables and chairs. First, law is not a material artifact (as a table) but an intellectual one. Second, it is different from other intellectual artifacts (as poems) because it is normative. Third, it is different from an individual creation because it is social: it exists only in, and for, a society. And four, as a social artifact, it cannot be reduced to some authors’ intentions, nor to some users’: in fact it is the interplay of different social actors (such as legislators, scholars, judges, etc.) that makes up the law.