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
First Page
313
Publisher
University of Toronto Faculty of Law
DOI
Positivism, nature of law, utilitarianism, natural law, Hart, Austin, Kant, Weinrib
Keywords
Positivism, nature of law, utilitarianism, natural law, Hart, Austin, Kant, Weinrib
Disciplines
Jurisprudence | Law | Torts
Recommended Citation
Martin J. Stone,
Legal Positivism as an Idea About Morality,
61
U. Toronto L.J.
313
(2011).
Positivism, nature of law, utilitarianism, natural law, Hart, Austin, Kant, Weinrib
Comments
Understanding the Law on Its Own Terms: Essays on the Occasion of Ernest Weinrib's Killiam Prize