H1 LEGAL THEORY ESSAY NOTES

Description

These notes cover topics pertaining to key debates in legal theory between Hart’s legal positivism and Dworkin’s interpretivism, examining whether law is best understood as a system of rules or as a combination of rules and principles. They explore Hart’s concepts of primary and secondary rules (especially the rule of recognition) and Austin’s command theory, contrasting them with Dworkin’s law as integrity, which ties law to moral reasoning and interpretation. Central disputes include the nature of legal validity, the extent of judicial discretion, and the relationship between law and morality. Overall, the notes map the evolution from positivist to interpretivist understandings of what makes law binding and legitimate.