PHILOS 3Q03 Chapter 1: Dworkin’s Critique of Legal Positivism - Lyons [Required Reading Summary]
8 May 2018
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Dworkin’s Critique of Legal Positivism - Lyons !
-Law of community contains standards that “can be identified and distinguished by specific
criteria, with test not based on their content but their pedigree; or in which the manner their
were adopted or developed !
•Pedigree can be interpreted as the merit or validity of something !
-Legal Standards are Rules (with reference to his Model of Rules) !
-There is a degree of vagueness or ambiguity in the rules, gaps, or conflicts between them,
there are some cases where the law has no determinate application. Therefore, these cases
can only be decided if judged make new laws !
-legal rights and duties are laid down by legal rules, so that when rules have no determinate
application, there is no pre existing rights to be enforced !
-Dworkin makes the Distinction between rules and principles !
•Rules: applicable in an all or nothing fashion !
-Contradicting rules are an anomaly that needs to be fixed via making one invalid !
•Principles allow room for interpretation which lessens the authority of the rule !
•References Riggs Vs Palmer where the principle of no many should benefit from his own
fraud weighed more than the contract law statutes !
-Lyons clarifies that Dworkin’s definition of positivism is misleading. Instead it should be:!
•it is not that laws are not allowed to embody morals !
•It just doesn’t matter if they do, but there are not bound to that !
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Document Summary
Legal standards are rules (with reference to his model of rules) There is a degree of vagueness or ambiguity in the rules, gaps, or con icts between them, there are some cases where the law has no determinate application. Therefore, these cases can only be decided if judged make new laws. Legal rights and duties are laid down by legal rules, so that when rules have no determinate application, there is no pre existing rights to be enforced. Dworkin makes the distinction between rules and principles: rules: applicable in an all or nothing fashion. Lyons clari es that dworkin"s de nition of positivism is misleading.
