At the Intersection of Legality and Morality: Hartian Law as Natural Law

Into the far too frequently arid debate in legal philosophic writings, wherein positivists and natural lawyers rack up critical but nondecisive points one against the other, enters a fresh perspective which details a firm foundation for reconsidering the joinder of past enemies under a unified banner. Carefully sifting the work of writers such as H.L.A. Hart and Hans Kelsen, who insist upon the analytic separation of law as it ‘is’ from law as it ‘ought to be’, the book employs illustrative case law to highlight and methodically move through positivism’s strengths and weaknesses, and suggests modifications and elaborations that slowly but finally break down this barrier of separation. In the end, a sound theory of positivism is seen to unfold as natural law.