The Concept of Law

Hart’s account of what law is. Against the older command theory, he argues that a legal system is a union of primary rules telling people what to do and secondary rules about how rules are made, changed and applied — with a “rule of recognition”, accepted in practice by officials, at the base. He separates the question of what the law is from whether it is just, and allows that rules have an open texture at the edges where judges must choose. The postscript on his long argument with Dworkin is part of the standard edition.

Why it’s on the list: It sits in the Law and Legal Theory section as the twentieth century’s standard statement of legal positivism — the account of legal authority that the section’s other entries argue with.

Where I saw it: On Brendan McCord’s Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List, in the section on Law and Legal Theory, saved to Kyle’s “Books To Read” Apple Note. The full 211-entry transcription lives on The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.

Connections

• Institutions — law as the institution Hart is analysing.
• Government — the authority whose rules the book accounts for.
• The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the list this came from.