“What are the major strengths and weakness of Dworkin’s theory of law as compared to a positivist or natural law perspective?” Discuss.
Arguably one of the most influential legal theorists of the 20th century, Ronald Dworkin’s dealings with law’s interpretation and integrity has lead to inevitable contradictions with that of positivist ideology, with his work essentially revitalising a method of thinking that had long been considered dead and buried. Perhaps most notoriously, Dworkin combated the positivist theory of his former teacher and predecessor as Professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford University, H.L.A. Hart. When comparing the two, it is apparent that Dworkin and Hart disagree on a plethora of issues, however there exist several
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As such, it is possible that numerous conflicting principles may exist in the one scenario. Dworkin even goes further by introducing the concept of policy defining a policy as ‘that kind of standard that sets out a goal to be reached, generally an improvement in some economic, political, or social feature of the community’.
The famous US decision of Riggs v Palmer serves to illustrate a considerable strength in Dworkin’s argument concerning rules and principles. The New York court had to decide a case to determine whether a grandson who poisoned his grandfather to obtain his inheritance was in fact able to collect such an inheritance. At the time, there existed no statute or law that invalidated his claim as a beneficiary due to his involvement in the murder. Furthermore, the applicable legal rule seemed to be that legacies contained in legally valid testamentary dispositions are to be guaranteed by law in accordance with the wishes of the testator. According to Hart, the court should, in this situation, be decided upon pre-existing law. Yet despite this, the court majority found that the grandson could not inherit, instead appealing to moral reasoning by citing the principle that no one should be able to profit from ones crimes. A similar decision based on principle was handed down 70 years later in the case of Henningsen v Bloomfield Motors Inc. As a result of these cases, Dworkin is able
From this, McKown presumes that lawful rights are all that exist. He says "Our eyes and our optimism should be centred around, on the main sort of rights that can be acknowledged: lawful rights." An arrangement of lawful positivism brings about a self-assertive lawful code. At the point when legitimate positivism is consolidated with advancement, Humanist lawful hypothesis becomes fanciful. Kurtz portrays the outcome "Laws provide us just with general aides for conduct;
Philosophical thought provides the infrastructure that allows society to author moral laws. While morality may be the aim, other variables can cause these laws to become corrupt. The urge for power is one of many, recurring, variables that infect morality. During these times of ‘infection,’ society must contest those who oppose just laws. In order to shine a light on unjust laws, laws are bound to be broken. It is not only lawful to break unjust laws, but the duty of the people to speak up and be a voice for change. It is critical, during these times, to work towards equilibrium with the goal to change the law. Regardless of the circumstances, it is lawful to break unjust laws with the goal to make them just again.
Simply defining policy is a plan of action, is a little too simplistic, the idea of policy must be explored at a greater depth if policy analysis is to have any real impact. Stephen Bell, (1993) states that policy exists in a number of formats. This first being “policy as text”, policies are the result of a great deal of debate and compromises that
To gain a better understanding of Social Policy we need to look at its definition:
Therefore he defines the word policy only, in three different ways that it is usually used. Policy used first to name when the government give some public notice on the houseless people or those who need protection and also to the undefended children from treating them in a harmful way. The second time that we come a cross the word policy is when public approved to do public assets to a program. Which involve, when the government make decision to give money on welfare and health, that process is also called policy.
This shows us that the idea that Dworkin has of moral principles playing a role in judicial decision-making and interpretation is correct to a large extent, and thus the use of subjectivity is accurate and apparent.
This paper tends to review and give its remark to the comment penned by Michael McConnell on Dworkin’s Moral Reading of the Constitution. Dworkin infer that judges must decide cases on the roots on how “abstract moral principles of the constitution are best understood”, which means that judges should decide based on their own interpretation about political morality. However, this approach made many arguments since it somewhat implies that judges are grander in making decisions about moral importance.
In Milroy, the deceased executed a deed, which used wrong formality, to set up a trust of shares in favour of his niece. The niece argued that
The impact of Williams v Roffey Bros & Nicholls (Contractors) Ltd [1989] EWCA Civ 5 on the doctrine of consideration.
This article discusses the conceptions of legal normativity, both moral and “strictly legal” conceptions. According to Spaak, regarding the normative force of legal justification, legal positivists can still embrace the moral idea and not be in conflict with their generally held belief in the “strictly legal” concept of law. In Torben Spaak’s opinion, there is a reason to desire legal positivism; he explains this through introducing the concept of jurisprudence. When discussing the nature of law, Spaak states, “that while the moral conception is what is likely favored on a smaller scale, the strictly legal conception is more appealing because it is broader,” (478). Spaak is arguing, his belief that “validity-based explanations come nearer to the truth,”(483) rather than belief-based explanations. He concludes that we are to prefer legal positivism over natural law theory. “That is why in this article I have been concerned with the law itself rather than our views about it.”(483)
Law and morality work together to guide our behavior; while law does it by punishing us if we do something wrong, morality does it through incentives. In their articles, both H.L.A Hart in “Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals,” and Lon Fuller’s reply to professor Hart in “Positivism and Fidelity to Law,” discuss the concept of law post world war II Germany and their re-imagining of natural law as put forth by Gustav Radbruch’s theory. In this paper, I hope to show how both law and morality is needed to create just rules, more specifically drawing from the “grudge informer” case mentioned in Hart’s article. First, I will explain the dilemma of the “grudge informer” case and the contradicting theory laid down by Radbrunch’s.
The theory of Critical Legal Studies removes the common held standards and aspects of general legal practices and looks to establish a more rounded and equitable remedy in all concerned situations. It is perceived that the law and its makers look only to protect the interests of those that are in power and that of the overwhelming social demographic whom create the modern day structure of beliefs, prejudices and sanctions that are implemented as laws.
www.iep.utm.edu/legalpos/ [April 17 2001][accessed 4th November 2012] Plato.standford.edu/entries/legal-positivism/ [2003][accessed 4th November 2012] 6 Joseph Raz The Authority Of Law: Essays On Law And Morality(1979)p. 47
Legal positivism offers a definition of laws as a written declaration made by government officials that have legal power to control certain aspects of society and human conduct (Himma, 2004). Legal positivist recognize all rules, regulations, principles and other forms of law that come from an authorized government body or official (Himma, 2004). But Legal positivist do not recognize laws, principles or any form of law or behavior modifier that does not come directly from an authorized government official (George, 1996). Any behavioral norms will not be recognized but legal norms are deemed as enforceable by the police power of the government (George, 1996). Legal positivism is often put in contrast with natural law because they are basically opposites.
The normative side, on the other hand, is concerned with designing new policies that meet certain objectives.