Definition and Rule in Legal Theory: Reassessment of H.L.A.Hart and the Positivist Tradition

H.L.A. Hart’s The Concept of Law has had perhaps the most profound effect this century on the development of legal theory, laying the foundation for a theoretical construct that has become effectively the modern juristic orthodoxy. Robert Moles’s book sets out to radically reinterpret Hart’s thesis and the Positivist tradition. He argues that Harts’s analysis is fundamentally flawed and, setting himself against a formalistic position shows how social, historical and intellectual contexts must play a fundamental part in legal understanding and justification. The author’s conclusions have major implications for modern judicial law-making and legal codification by freeing them from the bonds of Hart’s rule-centred concept. Legal theorists; political and social theorists; philosophers.