Interpretation and private international law: philosophical hermeneutics, abduction, analogy, and the obsolescence of legal positivism

Abstract The purpose of this article is to analyse some of the more saillant philosophical elements of Private International Law. We shall focus on the concept of analogy and its hermeneutical roots, all the while detailing why both are incompatible with the framework set forth by positivism in all its shapes. Doing so will also require that we analyse the logical figure of abduction as conceived by Charles Sanders Peirce and Umberto Eco. Hopefully, by the end of the present article, the reader will have understood that both the theory and practice of Law is more subtle than we make it out to be, far removed from the mechanical mindset we often read and hear of.