The concept of law –H.L.A. Hart
- At the very beginning, Hart entailed that the notion of law was nebulous. He
said that it didn’t have a definite answer from daily experience, but people
could recognize some features of the law.
- At this stage, it seems that Hart did not want to define why law exists. He
wrote:
“Virtually everyone except the child or foreigner coming across the English word
‘law' for the first time could easily multiply such examples, and most people could do
more. how to find out whether something is the law in England;"
- He then postulated five features of what people think as the feature of law:
1. Prescription
2. compensation
3. compulsion
4. rules for punishment and compensation
5. procedural rules
- However, he said it couldn't be the way to define what law is. The reasons for the
vagueness are there are some rules which resemble law, but they are not enacted
by legislative procedure and organized by an effective system of sanctions. The
example could be some primitive law and international law.
- Moreover, he said there are some rules which deviate from laws as a matter of
degree. Those are the standards to be laws. There are some concomitants in some
rules, therefore it demarcates from the meaning of 'law,' but they would share
some features of 'law.'
- He named three issues to identify what law is.
1. Where does the obligation come from in the case of order backed by threat and
the law?
2. if morality will have some influence on the conduct of people, what is the
difference between morality rule and law?
- At the very beginning, Hart entailed that the notion of law was nebulous. He
said that it didn’t have a definite answer from daily experience, but people
could recognize some features of the law.
- At this stage, it seems that Hart did not want to define why law exists. He
wrote:
“Virtually everyone except the child or foreigner coming across the English word
‘law' for the first time could easily multiply such examples, and most people could do
more. how to find out whether something is the law in England;"
- He then postulated five features of what people think as the feature of law:
1. Prescription
2. compensation
3. compulsion
4. rules for punishment and compensation
5. procedural rules
- However, he said it couldn't be the way to define what law is. The reasons for the
vagueness are there are some rules which resemble law, but they are not enacted
by legislative procedure and organized by an effective system of sanctions. The
example could be some primitive law and international law.
- Moreover, he said there are some rules which deviate from laws as a matter of
degree. Those are the standards to be laws. There are some concomitants in some
rules, therefore it demarcates from the meaning of 'law,' but they would share
some features of 'law.'
- He named three issues to identify what law is.
1. Where does the obligation come from in the case of order backed by threat and
the law?
2. if morality will have some influence on the conduct of people, what is the
difference between morality rule and law?
