Quotes from bookThe Concept of Law
The Concept of Law is a 1961 book by the legal philosopher HLA Hart and his most famous work.The Concept of Law presents Hart's theory of legal positivism—the view that laws are rules made by humans and that there is no inherent or necessary connection between law and morality—within the framework of analytic philosophy. Hart sought to provide a theory of descriptive sociology and analytical jurisprudence. The book addresses a number of traditional jurisprudential topics such as the nature of law, whether laws are rules, and the relation between law and morality. Hart answers these by placing law into a social context while at the same time leaving the capability for rigorous analysis of legal terms, which in effect "awakened English jurisprudence from its comfortable slumbers".Hart's book has remained "one of the most influential text of analytical legal philosophy", as well as "the most successful work of analytical jurisprudence ever to appear in the common law world." According to Nicola Lacey, The Concept of Law "remains, 40 years after its publication, the main point of reference for teaching analytical jurisprudence and, along with Kelsen’s The Pure Theory of Law and General Theory of Law and State, the starting point for jurisprudential research in the analytic tradition."
