The Legal Conflict between Recreational Hunters and Anti-Hunting Activists in the Kingdom of the Netherlands

The paper presents the author’s view of the problem of the rational and the irrational in law as it exists in the sphere of the implementation of legal norms regulating the political process. This problem is examined through the example of the political system of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, a constitutional democratic state governed by the rule of law. A characteristic and vivid example of the irrational in the law of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is provided by the confrontational legal relations that have persisted for many years and remain unresolved to this day between such social groups of Dutch society as amateur hunters and anti-hunters — extremist elements exerting a negative influence on the mass consciousness of Dutch society. In other words, a situation arises in which, in both cases, there is open confrontation between two forms of one and the same phenomenon, namely, the rational in law, complicated by the irrationality of the Dutch political system. The author concludes that the current Dutch authorities are incapable of resolving this prolonged confrontation between these social groups, although, given political will on the part of the ruling elites and the achievement of a compromise between them, a solution could be found through fundamental changes to the political system of the Netherlands.

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