PHIL 2050 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Susan Dimock, Positive Law, The Province
4 Dec 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Not to be used without written permission of the copyright holder. John austin (1790-1859), the province of jurisprudence determined 1832. Legal positivists reject all the evaluative requirements for law posited by natural law theorists: reason, common good, justice. Two kinds of law: divine law: provide definition, human (postive) law: provide definition. Positive law is set by political superiors to subordinates. The person to whom the command is issued (the subordinate) is bound or obliged, under a duty, to do as commanded. Thus that all laws emanate from superiors is a tautology. Relate this condition of superiority to what austin says about divine law. The sovereign: a person or group of people who exercise political sovereignty in an independent political society. Independent sovereign + subjects = independent political society. Positive law must be distinguished from other things with which it is confused because they are related by resemblance or analogy. The relation between positive law, positive morality, and god"s.
