THE CONCEPT OF LAW SECOND EDITION BY H. L. A. HART With a Postscript edited by Penelope A. Bulloch and Joseph Raz CLARENDON PRESS - OXFORDOxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford ox2 6vr Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bombay Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence. Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a trade mark of Oxford University Press Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Osford University Press 1961 First edition published 1961 Second edition published 1994 (with a new Postscript) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press. Within the UK, exceptions are allowed in respect of any fair dealing for the purpose of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of the licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms and in other countries should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available 0-19-876122-8 5791086 Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd., Guildford and King’s LynnCONTENTS I. PERSISTENT QUESTIONS 1. Perplexities of Legal Theory 2. Three Recurrent Issues 3. Definition II. LAWS, COMMANDS, AND ORDERS 1. Varieties of Imperatives 2. Law as Coercive Orders III. THE VARIETY OF LAWS 1. The Content of Laws 2. The Range of Application 3. Modes of Origin IV. SOVEREIGN AND SUBJECT 1. The Habit of Obedience and the Continuity of Law 2. The Persistence of Law 3. Legal Limitations on Legislative Power 4. The Sovereign behind the Legislature V. LAW AS THE UNION OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY RULES 1. A Fresh Start 2. The Idea of Obligation 3. The Elements of Law VI. THE FOUNDATIONS OF A LEGAL SYSTEM 1. Rule of Recognition and Legal Validity 2. New Questions 3. The Pathology of a Legal System VII. FORMALISM AND RULE-SCEPTICISM 1. The Open Texture of Law 2. Varieties of Rule-Scepticism 13 18 20 26 27 42 44 50 51 61 66 71 79 82 gi 100 100 110 117 124 124, 136