SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY

OF H.L.A HART

By:
Joel Choo Xuein Wei
Nora Enira
(1142700041)
Pavitra Jagathison
Mohamad Syakir
Henry Ho Yit Yao

(1142700043)

(1142700040)
(1142700038)
(1142700042)

Brief Background

Professor H.L.A Harts

Theories
The Concept of Law
Legal Positivism
Similar to The Pure Law Theory by
Hans Kelsen
A critique of Devlin
A critique of John Austin's theory
The Rule of Recognition
The Rule of Change
The Rule of Adjudication

H.L.A Hart critiques

He is a critique of John Austin's
theory that law is the command of
the sovereign backed by the threat of
punishment.
He is also a critique of Devlin, and
argued that Devlins case against
liberty blurs the distinction between
paternalist law.

The Concept of law

H.L.A Hart analysed of the relation between law,
coercion, and morality, and attempts to clarify the
question of whether all laws may be properly
conceptualized as coercive orders or as moral
commands. Hart says that there is no logically necessary
connection between law and coercion or between law
and morality. He explains that to classify all laws as
coercive orders or as moral commands is to oversimplify
the relation between law, coercion, and morality. He also
explains that to conceptualize all laws as coercive orders
or as moral commands is to impose a misleading
appearance of uniformity on different kinds of laws and
on different kinds of social functions which laws may
perform. He argues that to describe all laws as coercive
orders is to mischaracterize the purpose and function of
some laws and is to misunderstand their content, mode
of origin, and range of application.

H.L.A Harts Legal Positivism

Hart restated the legal positivism by saying that the
law should be looked at internally as a set of rules.
These rules are divided into two categories: Primary
and secondary, such that a primary rule governs
conduct, such as criminal law and secondary rules
govern the procedural methods by which primary rules
are enforced, prosecuted and so on. Hart specifically
enumerates three secondary rules; they are:
The Rule of Recognition
The Rule of Change
The Rule of Adjudication

The Rule of Recognition

The Rule of Recognition, the rule by which
any member of society may check to
discover what the primary rules of the
society are. In a simple society, Hart
states, the recognition rule might only be
what is written in a sacred book or what is
said by a ruler. Hart claimed the concept of
rule of recognition as an evolution from
Hans Kelsen's Grundnorm", or "basic
norm."

The Rule of Adjudication

The Rule of Adjudication, the rule by
which the society might determine
when a rule has been violated and
prescribe a remedy

The Rule of Change

The rule by which existing primary rules
might be created, altered or deleted.

law and rules

H.L.A Hart states that there is
distinction between the internal and
external points of view of law and
rules, close to (and influenced by) Max
Weber's distinction between the
sociological and the legal perspectives
of law.

The Rule
of
Recognit
ion

The Rule
of
Change

The Rule
of
Adjudica
tion

H.L.A
Hart
Sociologi
cal
Theories

Legal
Positivis
m

The
Concept
of Law

Criticizes
Devlin
and John
Austin

Parallel
to The
Pure Law
Theory

Comments