Does the law exists without coercion?

Abstract

Law is a very complex phenomenon consisting of various, interwoven aspects, which are not necessarily in harmony. In connection with the above, we distinguish normative aspects of law (legal norms and legal acts), value aspects of law (justice, legal certainty, expediency) and factual aspects of law (actual behavior of citizens and authorities). The stated premises lead us to the conclusion that it is very difficult to define the concept of law. However, if we were to analyze existing definitions (classical, prototypical, and prescriptive), we could find certain common characteristics of the concept of law - institutionality, normativity, and coercion. By examining the above characteristics, in this paper we ask the question of whether Nuclear Law is a law at all, bearing in mind that it lacks one of its constitutive elements - coercion.