ABSTRACT

Hart’s account of law has long been acknowledged to be vulnerable to counterexamples which show that it is over-inclusive, since organisations such as private clubs, trade unions, and the mafia satisfy his conditions for law’s existence while clearly not counting as law themselves. To deal with this issue, this paper adds a new condition to Hart’s account of the nature of law – a requirement that obedience to the valid rules of the putative legal system causally contribute to social order and peace. I show that this additional condition effectively responds to the argument from over-inclusiveness as well as avoiding potential objections from under-inclusiveness. This yields a more plausible account of law’s nature with interesting implications for general jurisprudence.

摘要

长期以来，哈特对法律的解释一直被认为容易受到反例的影响，这些反例表明它是过度包容的，因为私人俱乐部、工会和黑手党等组织满足了他的法律存在条件，而本身显然不属于法律。为了解决这个问题，本文在哈特关于法律性质的解释中增加了一个新条件——即遵守假定的法律体系的有效规则对社会秩序与和平有因果关系的要求。我表明，这个附加条件有效地回应了过度包容性的论点，并避免了包容性不足的潜在反对意见。这产生了对法律性质的更合理的解释，对一般法理学具有有趣的影响。