Legal theory

Legal theory studies the nature, sources, interpretation, and authority of law, including its relationships with morality, politics, and society.

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Legal positivism: The view that a rule’s legal validity depends on social sources, not necessarily on its moral merit. It separates the question of what law is from whether law is just.
Inclusive legal positivism: A form of legal positivism allowing a legal system’s social rules to make moral criteria relevant to legal validity. It shows how positivism can admit moral tests without making them necessary to every legal system.
H. L. A. Hart: An English legal philosopher whose work developed modern legal positivism and the idea of law as a union of rules. His account made social rules central to explaining legal systems.
Constitutional interpretation: The process of determining the meaning and legal effect of a constitution’s provisions. It puts theories of interpretation and legal authority to work on foundational law.
Legal obligation: A duty recognized by law and enforceable through legal institutions. Theories disagree about whether legal duties bind morally as well as institutionally.
Natural law: The tradition that connects law’s authority or validity to moral principles or human nature. It challenges accounts that define law solely through social facts.
Exclusive legal positivism: A form of legal positivism holding that moral criteria cannot determine legal validity. It gives the sharpest contrast with theories that build morality into law.
Hans Kelsen: An Austrian jurist who developed the Pure Theory of Law, analyzing law as a hierarchy of norms. His theory explains legal validity through relations among norms rather than moral content.
Judicial review: The power of courts to assess whether government actions comply with a constitution or other superior law. Its legitimacy raises questions about legal authority and judicial interpretation.
Legal legitimacy: The justified right of legal institutions or rules to exercise authority. It asks whether law’s actual authority deserves acceptance.