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11 Ratio Juris 1 (1998)

handle is hein.journals/raju11 and id is 1 raw text is: Ratio Juris. Vol. 11 No. 1 March 1998 (1-11) On Collective Actions. Some Remarks on the Theory of Legal Actions AULIS AARNIO Abstract. In this paper the author deals with collegial judicial decisions as a form of human action. The scope is, however, limited to three questions: (1) What is the structure and the status of the general theory of action; (2) Is this theory applicable to such performative acts as judicial decisions; and finally, (3) Is it possible to speak about action in connection with collective agents such as collegial courts? The author defends the thesis that general theory of action as such is applicable to collective action, too, because the difficulty is not in the structure of that theory, or in its individual character, but specifically in the notion of collective will. This kind of will is epistemologically always a result of a political procedure, and speaking about the collective will presupposes the analysis of these procedures, because in practice they and only they formulate collective motives, collective beliefs and the like. 1. Conceptual Specifications 1.1. The Problem In my presentation, the focus lies on collegial legal actions as a form of human action. The scope is, however, limited to three questions: (1) What is the structure and the status of the general theory of action introduced by Georg Henrik von Wright; (2) Is this theory applicable to such performative acts as judicial decisions or passing a statute; and finally, (3) Is it possible at all to speak about action in connection to collective agents, especially with such highly institutionalized agents as collegial courts or legislators? To elaborate these problems, some conceptual clarifications are necessary. Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1998, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 lJF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.