Law, Coercive Enforcement, and Practical Reason

Abstract

I argue that, from the standpoint of practical rationality, it is implausible to think that it is a conceptual truth that law provides reasons to obey a legal norm simply in virtue of its status as law, unless authorized coercive enforcement mechanisms are a conceptually necessary feature of a legal system. In the absence of such mechanisms, law as such is not plausibly characterized as reasonably contrived to provide reasons for action. Accordingly, the argument is intended to show that it is a conceptually necessary feature of law that a legal system authorize coercive enforcement mechanisms for some violations of law.

Keywords: law, enforcement, normativity, conceptual jurisprudence