PHIL 2260 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Legal Positivism, Legal Realism, Negative Liberty
18 Dec 2013
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Early/mid 19th century, englishman, utilitarian, normative thinker. His work on positive law is a critic of natural law. The law is primarily about power and coercion, not reason. Austin puts coercion as the core while aquinas puts coercion to the side. is/ought distinction he is interested in what the laws are, looking at the laws that had already been made to figure out the social utility. Sanction is a penalty; if you break a law, you receive a penalty. The law will not transform, will not make you a better human being. He tries to find out if the law has an effect on people. He gives the laws a scientific point of view (legal realism) Analytic jurisprudence the study of law, not normative (to ought to do, not ought to do) What is a duty?) he tries to describe the law as it already exists. Austin wants to give some consistence in laws.
