The Normative Fallacy Regarding Law’s Authority
Wil Waluchow and Stefan Sciaraffa (eds.), Philosophical Foundations of the Nature of Law, Oxford University Press, 2013, Forthcoming
34 Pages Posted: 23 Sep 2012 Last revised: 20 Nov 2012
Date Written: August 28, 2012
Abstract
The philosophical treatment of socio-political concepts is susceptible to a methodological fallacy, consisting of an illicit move from statements in moral theory to statements about social and political facts. This fallacy — the normative fallacy — can be found in legal philosophy as well. In this essay I discuss the normative fallacy regarding law’s authority, criticize Raz’s theory of de facto authority as committing this fallacy, and consider the importance of law’s de facto authority (which can be quite different from its moral, rightful authority) to legal philosophy.
Keywords: general jurisprudence, Raz, authority, normative fallacy, de facto, legitimate, rightful, practical matrix
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