“Antigone” by Sophocles and the fundamental legal issue: the eternal tension between legal certainty and normative correction

Abstract

Sophocles’ Antigone has a prominent place in the Philosophy of Law. This tragedy expresses legal dilemmas and offers symbols that carry multiple interpretations. Throughout the centuries the work has been read, mostly, from a dualistic bias in which antagonistic pretensions of justice of Antigone and Creon collide – the satisfaction of one point of view implies the destruction of the other. However, François Ost offered a new interpretation of the tension proposed by Sophocles, finding a third moment in which the conciliation between opposites is possible. Such a moment would be occupied by the jurisdictional function in which hermeneutics would seek the best conciliation between the litigating parties. This research, after discussing an overview of Antigone’s plot and detailing Ost’s contribution, goes beyond Ost and argues from prominent names in contemporary Philosophy of Law (namely, Habermas, Alexy and Dworkin) that the tension present in Antigone is structurally analogous to legal issues faced throughout history.