Global Ethics and Legal Policy

A, Podgórecki, starting from the concept of the scientific politics of law by Leon Petrażycki and the related sociology of law arrived at the concept of mega-sociology combining the issue of social engineering with the normative dimension of "global ethics" and legal structure of societies. We point out that within this theory, in legal experiences and legal acts, the scope of subjects of rights and obligations goes beyond the scope of human beings and "legal persons", including primarily animals, but also other non-human subjects. Global ethics taking into account the surrounding environment of which humans are just a part is thus the third element of the triad beginning with human-individualistic ethics passing into the ethics of pro-social duties, which is inadequate to contemporary challenges. Podgórecki believes that the new ethics is becoming independent of traditional myths and religions, and the world of science is its representative. We point out that this adaptation of Petrażycki's theory allows for the construction of a program of legal policy that will go beyond the boundaries of the human species, and we give examples such as the rights of apes and the laws of rivers that go beyond these wondering to what extent the implementation of the program can free itself from natural (human) intelligence and human monopoly of power (the State). This new ethics, however, requires a new politics, precisely global and intersecting with hierarchical models of power-based legal policies. We wonder then to what degree global ethics does involve mutual aid principle interacting with politics of trans-political solidarity of ethically emancipated social movements and environments.