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Words: | Submitted: Mon Jun 19 2006
... on the importance of the separation of law from morality. He rejects the "command theory" and states that law comprises rules entirely which are divided into two categories - primary (duty-imposing rules) and secondary rules (power-imposing rules). Primary rules grant rights or impose legal obligations upon the citizens, for example, criminal law consists only of primary rules. Secondary rules stipulate how primary rules are formed and validated, involving rules of change, adjudication and recognition. For instance, the rules that stipulate how Congress is composed and how it enacts legislation are secondary rules. One of the most important areas of Hart's theory is his "open texture theory" of the rules of law. He actually derived this concept from the work of Fredrich Waismann, which was in turn possibly based on a constructive view of language put forward by Ludwig Wittgenstein. However, the use of the term by the two philosophers is different. In ...
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