Advanced Introduction to Legal Positivism

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world’s leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas.

The Advanced Introduction to Legal Positivism provides an accessible overview of legal positivism, structured in accordance with the main theses of theoretical and methodological positivism: the normativity, the social, the separation and the descriptive thesis.

Kaarlo Tuori compares the two main variants of 20th century positivism presented by Hans Kelsen and H. L. A. Hart, delineating these from philosophical and sociological positivism. Tuori examines the criticism of natural law and legal realism by both Kelsen and Hart, offering new insights into the connections between law and morals and into law’s social dimension. He outlines problematic reductions caused by legal positivism, including the neglect of social and legal-cultural dimensions, as well as the interlegality of contemporary law.

Key Features:

• Explores the social dimension of law
• Examines legal principles and validity
• Critically analyses Kelsen’s basic norm and Hart’s rule of recognition
• Discusses conceptual analysis and the accompanying reliance on a standard case in legal positivism

This informative Advanced Introduction is an essential guide for students and academics in law and philosophy. Its critical and methodological insights are also beneficial for legal theorists and philosophers of law.