Publication Date

2006

Journal

University of Colorado Law Review

Abstract

H.L.A. Hart is probably the most important legal theorist in the modern English-speaking world. The intriguing subtitle of Nicola Lacey's intimate biography, "The Nightmare and the Noble Dream, " echoes the name of Hart's 1997 Georgia Law Review paper, in which he identifies two warring, equally inadequate, visions of law in American jurisprudence: the "nightmare" of complete indeterminacy and unbridled judicial discretion and the "noble dream " of a closed, deterministic legal system of judicial restraint. Lacey implies that Hart's life itself was both a nightmare and a noble dream. This book review expands on Lacey's work and suggests how both the most significant failing in Hart's theoretical work-namely his inability to formulate an adequate account of the "morality" that supposedly serves as law's defining other-as well as his passionate argument against what he perceived as the repressive "moralism " of conservative legalism, may reflect his internal personal struggles, particularly with respect to his repressed sexuality.

Volume

77

Issue

3

First Page

803

Last Page

830

Publisher

University of Colorado Boulder School of Law

Disciplines

Constitutional Law | Jurisprudence | Law

Comments

Book Review

Download

Share

COinS