Carlos Cossio facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Carlos Cossio
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San Miguel de Tucuman
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| Died | August 24, 1987 (aged 84) |
Carlos Cossio (born in San Miguel de Tucuman on February 3, 1903 – died in Buenos Aires on August 24, 1987) was an important Argentinian jurist (a legal expert), lawyer, and professor. He was also a strong supporter of making universities better for students. One of his most famous ideas is called the Egological Theory of Law. This theory helps us understand how judges think and how laws really work in people's lives.
Contents
Carlos Cossio's Life Story
Cossio grew up and went to school in Tucumán. Later, he moved to Buenos Aires to study law at the University of Buenos Aires. There, he became a leader in a student movement that wanted to improve universities. He wrote his doctoral paper in 1927 about these university changes.
Teaching and New Ideas
From 1934 to 1948, Cossio taught at the National University of La Plata. This is where he started to develop his special ideas about "egological law." In 1948, he became a professor at the University of Buenos Aires. Here, he fully developed his unique way of thinking about law.
Many students and followers joined him, forming what was known as the "Argentina Legal School." Important people like Ambrose Lucas Gioja and Julio Cesar Cueto Rua were part of this group. Cossio became very well-known. He said that law is about "how people act and interact with each other." This idea led to a discussion with Hans Kelsen, another famous legal thinker, in 1949.
Challenging Times
In 1956, Cossio had to leave his teaching job. The government at the time, led by Pedro Eugenio Aramburu, removed him. This was because they thought he supported certain political groups. He could only return to his position in 1973, thanks to his friend Julio Raffo.
The changes in government made it hard for the "Argentina Law School" to grow. Cossio always defended his ideas strongly. He didn't join any specific political party. He even spoke out against governments that hurt human rights. He believed that judges should always consider how their decisions affect people's lives.
His Main Work
His most important book is Ideology and Law. In this book, he explained how judges understand and use the law. He also looked at how society's ideas and power structures influence laws. Cossio believed that what judges do affects everyone, even if it's not always obvious. He said judges play a big role in whether society moves towards fairness or unfairness.
Cossio agreed with some parts of Hans Kelsen's "Pure Theory of Law." But he also added his own ideas. Cossio believed that law isn't just about rules on paper. It's about understanding how real people behave and interact. He famously said, "the law as human behavior." He thought judges should see law as something always changing and alive, just like human life itself.
Cossio's work was translated into many languages around the world. In 1986, he received the Konex Award for his important contributions to thinking in Argentina.
Egological Theory's Influence
The Egological Theory of Law was a very important idea that came from a movement to improve universities in Latin America. Some of his main followers were Daniel Herrendorf and Julio Cesar Cueto Rua.
Carlos Cossio was also a talented poet. His most famous poem is "Agua herrada."
The Egological Theory of Law
Cossio's main ideas about the Egological Theory of Law are found in his book, "The egological theory of law and the legal concept of freedom." The first version came out in 1944.
How the Theory Developed
His ideas started to form around 1941. He was inspired by famous philosophers like Edmund Husserl, Immanuel Kant, Martin Heidegger, and Hans Kelsen. Cossio's theory was a new way to think about law. It was different from older ideas that focused only on religious rules or just the written laws.
Cossio believed that to understand law, we need to study human behavior. He said that law is not just about abstract rules. It's about how people act and interact with each other. He also looked at how power and money can influence laws. He wanted people to see that law should serve everyone, not just a few powerful groups.
What "Egologic" Means
The word "Egologic" might sound complicated, but Cossio explained it simply. Think of it like this:
- The word "phenomenology" means studying how things appear to us.
- "Egologic" is similar. It comes from "ego," meaning "I" or "self."
- Cossio used "Egologic" to mean understanding law through the idea of "I act." Instead of just "I think" (like in philosophy), he focused on "I act" in human behavior.
- So, "Egologic" in his theory means understanding how law is shaped by our actions and how we behave.
Main Ideas of the Egological Theory
Here are the main points of Carlos Cossio's Egological Theory:
- The law is about how people act and interact with each other.
- The law considers all human actions.
- The law looks at a human act as a whole.
- The law includes the possibility of using force (like police or courts).
- Freedom is a key part of law that cannot be removed.
- Legal rules help us understand how people's actions affect each other.
- Legal rules are like "either/or" statements, not just simple "if/then" rules.
Principal Works
- El concepto puro de la revolución (ed. Bosch, 1936).
- La valoración jurídica y la ciencia del derecho (1.ª ed., UNL, 1941; 2.ª ed., Arayú; 1954).
- La Política como Conciencia (Abeledo-Perrot, 1955).
- Ideología y Derecho (Inédito, 1962).
- La teoría egológica del derecho y el concepto jurídico de libertad (1.ª ed. 1944, Losada; 2.ª ed. 1964, Abeledo-Perrot).
- La plenitud del ordenamiento jurídico. (1.ª ed., Losada, 1939; 2.ª ed., Losada, 1947 y Los Andes, 2005)
- El Derecho en el Derecho Judicial. (1.ª ed., Kraft, 1945; 2.ª ed., Abeledo-Perot, 1959 y El Foro, 2002; 3.ª ed., Abeledo-Perrot, 1967)
- Teoría de la verdad jurídica. (Losada, 1954; El Foro, 2007)
- La opinión pública.
- La causa y la comprension en el derecho. (4.ª ed., Juarez Editor, 1969)
- El fundamento filosófico de los métodos interpretativos. (UNL, 1940).
- El principio "nulla poena sine lege" en la axiología egológica
See also
In Spanish: Carlos Cossio para niños
