Attitude and the normativity of law

Law and Philosophy 36 (5):469-493 (2017)
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Abstract

Though legal positivism remains popular, HLA Hart’s version has fallen somewhat by the wayside. This is because, according to many, the central task of a theory of law is to explain the so-called ‘normativity of law’. Hart’s theory, it is thought, is not up to the task. Some have suggested modifying the theory accordingly. This paper argues that both Hart’s theory and the normativity of law have been misunderstood. First, a popular modification of Hart’s theory is considered and rejected. It stems from a misunderstanding of Hart and his project. Second, a new understanding of the mysterious but often-mentioned ‘normativity of law’ is presented. Once we have dispelled some misunderstandings of Hart’s view and clarified the sense in which law is supposed to be normative, we see that Hart’s view, unmodified, is well suited to the task of explaining law’s normativity.

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Citations of this work

Regulative Rules: A Distinctive Normative Kind.Reiland Indrek - 2024 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 108 (3):772-791.
Conventions, Recognition, and the Practical Point of View.Sebastián Figueroa Rubio - 2025 - In Maciej Dybowski, Weronika Dzięgielewska & Wojciech Rzepiński (eds.), Practice theory and law: on practices in legal and social sciences. New York, NY: Routledge. pp. 186-207.

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References found in this work

Two concepts of rules.John Rawls - 1955 - Philosophical Review 64 (1):3-32.
Some reflections on language games.Wilfrid Sellars - 1954 - Philosophy of Science 21 (3):204-228.
Some Reflections on Language Games.Wilfrid Sellars - 1957 - Journal of Symbolic Logic 22 (4):402-403.
Two concepts of rules.John Rawls & Andrei Korbut - 2013 - Russian Sociological Review 12 (2):16-40.

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