LAW214 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Social Fact, H. L. A. Hart

• School: Macquarie University
• Department: Law/Law Participation and Community Engagement
• Course: LAW214
• Professor: Lukas Opacic

Document Summary

Week 2 law and force austin vs hart. Law is a way of guiding conduct but it is not the only way. Joh(cid:374) austi(cid:374)(cid:859)s theo(cid:396)(cid:455) of la(cid:449) (cid:858)e(cid:448)e(cid:396)(cid:455) la(cid:449) st(cid:396)i(cid:272)tl(cid:455) so (cid:272)alled is a (cid:272)o(cid:373)(cid:373)a(cid:374)d of a so(cid:448)e(cid:396)eig(cid:374) to a pe(cid:396)so(cid:374)/s i(cid:374) a state of su(cid:271)je(cid:272)tio(cid:374) to its autho(cid:396)(cid:859). The sovereign is that person or body who is habitually obeyed by the bulk of society and who does not habitually obey any other person or body. Ordinary factual or descriptive statements describe the way the world is. Normative statements tell us how we ought to behave. Austin analyses law in terms of empirically observable regularities in behaviour. He takes an external view of law. Ie no mention of the attitudes, reasons and beliefs of the participants in legal institutions their mental states. Ha(cid:396)t(cid:859)s (cid:272)(cid:396)iti(cid:395)ue of austi(cid:374: threats are incapable of placing us under obligations.