arbitrary nature. For example, the prohibitory norm forbidding non-disclosure, which is a norm that could just as well be construed as being a command to act in a certain manner, compelling the would-be swindler to inform his intended victim of the truth.Thus, it is unwarranted to contend that the statute prohibits a certain behavior because the statute is intended to prevent a certain (illegal) behavior.424 Arbitrary conclusions and findings of jurisprudence will eventually result in unscientific conclusions that lack the authority of law, such as, for instance, the confusion of active crimes for those of crimes of omission, as if the former could be perpetrated by means of the latter.425 Since jurisprudence acquires its legitimacy from the scientific character of its doctrines it is accordingly important that its conclusions and findings are formally faultless; consequently, the substance of the purely political function and legitimacy of jurisprudence traces its roots to the same source of authority, albeit with the reservation that the scientific integrity of a doctrine de lege ferenda never has the authority to outweigh any policy argument when making law. However, it must be stressed that the unscientific nature of natural law does not prevent the legislator from being under its spell, Hägerström, perhaps anachronistically, illustrated this when he described how the legislative committee of the Swedish parliament (Swedish: lagutskottet), 18561858, dealt with the coming Penal Code’s statutes for fraud and fraudulent conduct.They discussed the duty of care to inform one’s counterpart of certain factual circumstances from the perspective of a natural, but unenforceable, duty to behave loyally towards one’s counterpart, and concluded that disloyalty in contractual affairs should remain legal.To Hägerström, it was quite clear that the legislative committee used arguments of natural law in its analysis of the criminal character of certain disloyal conducts, and did so irrespective of these arguments’ status accordp a r t v i , c h a p t e r 7 510 424 Ibid.: p. 316. 425 Ibid.: p. 317.
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