Question: ‘Hart successfully explains the normative character of law by relying on his analysis of rules. But he acknowledges that a system of rules constitutes a body of law only if the bulk of the population obey, and he concedes that only the officials need to adopt an “internal point of view”. In the end, therefore, Hart reduces law to the governance of force.’
Critically assess the above statement.
High 2.1 essay, 68/100, 2nd year jurisprudence, Oxbridge
Answer: While there are some similarities between Hart’s views and the ‘governance of force’, he does not reduce his conception of law to it. The governance of force would be a view of law more closely described by the ‘reductionist’ theories of Austin and Bentham, which Hart spends a significant portion of ‘The Concept of Law’ critiquing. Austin believed that there is nothing more to law than the ‘gunman situation writ large’, therefore all laws are merely orders backed by the threat of sanction. A legal obligation would merely be a prediction of a person’s likelihood of suffering a sanction were he to flout the rules. Hart’s work points out many crucial flaws in this idea, and offers an alternative conception of law that is better able to deal with these problems. First,......(short extract)
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Details: - Mark: 68% | Course: Jurisprudence | Year: 2nd/3rd | Words: 1318 | References: No | Date written: Not available | Date submitted: January 11, 2017 | Coursework ID: 1030
