Jurisprudence

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

egal positivism is the name given to the school of juristic thought, which includes such luminaries of philosophy as Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), John Austin (1790-1859) and HLA Hart (1907-1992). Philosopher Ronald Dworkin once described legal positivism as the ruling theory of law. Since the time of Bentham and Austin legal positivism was the dominant theory and was held by most legal scholars in one way or another and was also the working theory of most legal practitioner’s

In August 2015, the case Miller V Davis brought to light the complicated relationship between law and morality. Indeed, Mrs Davis a county clerk in Rowan county (Kentucky), is being sued for not delivering marriage licences to same sex couples as she believes that homosexuality is morally wrong. Thus, despite the fact that same-sex marriage has been made legal by the U.S Supreme Court since June 2015. Ought individuals to apply the law though it is in inadequacy with their moral beliefs? Do the

The origins of the word ‘Euthanasia’ are Greek and translate to ‘easy death’. The definition of Euthanasia or 'dignified suicide' is the act of which one gets injected with a substance that will peacefully kill them. It's not euthanasia to give a drug in order to eliminate immediate pain, even though the drug causes the patient to die sooner. This is because the doctor wanted to relieve the pain, not to kill the patient. This is known as the Doctrine of Double effect. Euthanasia is generated towards

H.L.A. Hart first takes issue with John Austin first point. John Austin believed in a many species of commands. Hart disagrees with Austin’s statement completely. Hart believes that the idea that the law consists only of directives and orders which are followed by possible punishments do not help to explain the current legal systems. Hart finds value in the type of laws called “power conferring rules.” The rules offer less threats and actually establish a framework for which citizen can understand

1. Introduction Raz introduces the purpose of his paper to answer the reductive and age old question of the relation between morality and law. In the first section of his essay, he defends the Source Thesis where he explains the nature of legitimate practical authority. The second section, the implication of this analysis is elucidated to show the relevancy to our understanding of the law. The relation of the analysis with the there theses is examined. In the last section the connection between

“What good is a Bill of Rights that does not include the right to play, to wander, to explore, the rights to stillness and solitude, to discovery and physical freedom?” – Erik D. Fritsvold Legal consciousness is the summation of views and/or ideas that are expressed by a person in regards to law, litigation, and the justice system as a whole. This can also be viewed as an opinion a single person has about what is constituted as “right” and what is “wrong”. My view of the law might be different

In this paper, we will look at two philosophers discussing the existence, foundations and conditions of a legal system. The first philosopher we will look at is John Austin, who develops what is known as the command theory (Culver, 83). This theory argues that the law is a command that is given by a “sovereign,” with the threat of a penalty or consequence imposed if these laws are disobeyed (Culver, 83). He views the validity of a law by the source of the law and not the laws benefit to the citizens

Legal Positivism v. the Law of Nature Legal philosophy has changed dramatically throughout the years; many theories have evolved and are still supported to this day. Concepts such as values, morality, desires, and reason all come into play when law is defined. Law is a very difficult word to define; what exactly is it and where does it come from? To understand the idea of law, one must also understand how humans have evolved. From the beginning, humans have been forming groups for survival; either

Introduction; This essay is compiled to review and apply Ronald Dworkin (Dworkin) theory and how his theory was incorporated to assist in constructing laws. In light of Dworkin’s theory, significant areas such as moral principles, legal principles, rights and rules will be explore to understand the influence that these attributes had, in essence of creating laws. In order to understand these attributes and their abilities to be incorporated into laws, Dworkin’s theory first must be explored and