Positivist legal theory offers a coherant account of law as a system Essay

Positivist legal theory offers a coherant account of jurisprudence as a system of legal rules. This allows legal questions to be categorically distinguished from question - canvas ExampleThis allows clear distinguishing of matters of law from matters involving ethical motive, where a higher divine mandate may be invoked. Questions involving chasteity may create disparities and difficulty in a precise application of the law, since individual and group moral beliefs may differ from place to place and may not allow for the uniform application of the law. However, by understandably defineing that the law and morality are separate questions, the positivist theory allows legal questions to be clearly distinguished from questions involving morality.The salient aspect of the positivist legal theory that was put forward by Hart, is that it offers a comprehensive set of rules, both direct rules as well as secondary meta rules that help to specify how the primary rules will operate. Accordi ng to Austin, a law may be defined as a rule laid down for the guidance of an intelligent being by an intelligent being having cause over him.3 Austin also supports Benthams views4 in that every legal norm take to constitute a threat that is backed up by a sanction therefore obsession is an essential feature of the law.However, when there is too much of rigid adherence to the rules, the scope for judicial rendering may be seen to be limited. Therefore Hart fiercely opposes the predictive interpretation of law base upon its coercive aspect on the grounds that such interpretation obscures the fact that, where rules exist, deviations from them are not save grounds for prediction that hostile reactions will follow.... but are also a reason or justification for such reaction and for applying the sanctions.5The law viewed as a set of rules therefore also involves the social learning aspect, which Raz has emphasized, applying a test of behavioral guidance to determine that a person could hire come to accept the rules without actually deciding to do so, or questioning the original justification for the