Positivism and Conventionalism

Abstract

All positivists hold that law has social foundations. According to H.L.A. Hart, for example, the legal system rests on customary social norms followed by judges and other officials: norms that recognize other norms as belonging to the system and norms that provide for the application and alteration of the system’s primary norms. Even if this view requires amendment, it is likely any plausible account of the nature of law needs some account of social norms. Finding a fully satisfactory one, however, has proved surprisingly difficult.