If applied to legal reality the aforementioned form of will-theory shows itself to contain contradictions. For instance, if a person is ignorant of certain rules of penal law, then it would be highly improbable that this very person would want those rules to be maintained. If this person is educated about the existence and meaning of these rules, it would be just as unlikely to assume that this person would automatically embrace and support them when accused of a crime. Finally, the legal order itself does not allow the truly communal will of citizens to have any real effect upon the content of law and its application. On the contrary, the legal order is based upon general principles of law prescribing that the law shall be applied invariably, and irrespective of subjective factors such as real or feigned ignorance of the law. In conclusion, the communal will-theory - that law originates from and is maintained through the content of the communal will - is invalidated when confronted with legal practice and reality. Additional attempts to establish a tenable will-theory have had their recourse to anthropomorphic spirituality (see, for example Hegel and Boström).134 If, for example, the law-making will is understood or postulated to be an autonomous spiritual reality, existing parallel to the psycho-social context it governs, then one is confronted with problems other than those posed by a theory regarding the individual’s law-making will. According to Hägerström’s analysis, this purely spiritual will is conceived as a spiritual reality or entity directly determining and deciding the doings and attitudes of the legally relevant individuals of a society. Hence, the relevant physical individuals command or declare the law, depending on the version of will-theory, the rules of law, but do so under the direct influence of the a ca l l f o r s c i e n t i f i c p u r i t y 335 134 See Hägerström, “Stat och statsformer (1921),” pp. 158-158; “Förhållandet mellan staten och rätten (1924),” pp. 261-263 and 266-268. 3. 4 . 1. 2 The Law-makingWill:An Autonomous Spiritual Reality
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