Publication Date

Spring 2011

Journal

University of Toronto Law Journal

Abstract

I ask what a proper critical target for 'legal positivism' might be. I argue that utilitarian moral theory, and more generally fully directive moral theories, are unacknowledged motivations for legal positivism. Contemporary debate about 'the nature of law' is, historically speaking, much more of a footnote to utilitarianism than has been recognized.

Volume

61

Issue

2

First Page

313

Last Page

342

Publisher

University of Toronto Faculty of Law

Keywords

Positivism, nature of law, utilitarianism, natural law, Hart, Austin, Kant, Weinrib

Disciplines

Jurisprudence | Law | Torts

Comments

Understanding the Law on Its Own Terms: Essays on the Occasion of Ernest Weinrib's Killiam Prize

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