POLS 250 Study Guide - Final Guide: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jeremy Bentham, Legal Positivism
5 Dec 2018
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Legal positivism: bentham"s legal positivism: a philosophy of law that emphasizes the conventional nature of law-that is socially constructed. According to legal positivism, law is synopsis with positive norms (norms made by the legislator or considered as common/ case law): tradition that came into prominence in the 20th century, legal positivism vs. natural law of tradition. Critic of natural law and the social contract in particular. Natural law: the belief that there is a necessary connection between law and morality. Social contract: an implicit agreement among the members of a society to cooperate for social bene ts, for example by perhaps sacri cing some individual freedom for state protection. Legal positivism will say of course, but they weren"t good laws. They were effective in getting people to behave in a certain way, and if they didn"t abide they would be punished: the existence of law is one thing; it"s merit and and demerit another (john austin.
