Abstract

Although most scholars try to conceive Immanuel Kant’s Theory of Law and his Moral Theory as belonging to a System, there is a difficulty that challenges most of the interpreters: If there is a moral content that informs how positive Law should be enacted, and hence if Morals could evaluate Law, why does Kant say that civil disobedience and resistance to Law cannot rationally be allowed? This apparent incongruence acquires another significance when one considers the functional and structural differences that Kant establishes between Law and Morals. If we take them seriously into account, we will realize that Kant operates a radical separation between Morals and Law, which can no longer derive its content from Morals, but instead looks for an increasingly more political foundation in Modernity.