H. L. A. Hart
1907-1992 · Utilitarianism · Prominent
Hart was the leading analytic legal philosopher of the twentieth century. What makes a law a law? His answer was that a legal system joins two kinds of rule: ones telling you what to do, and ones saying how those get made, changed and judged. At the bottom sits a rule of recognition that officials accept as settling what counts. A wicked law is still law on his account, and he revived Mill's harm principle to argue that criminal law may not enforce morality as such.
Signature
The position Hart is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Polity
- leans Liberalism
- Law
- Legal Positivism
Positions on the 1 axes the sources answer
- Polity
- leans Liberalism (85 on a 0–100 scale from Illiberalism to Liberalism)
19 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Hart refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Law
- Legal Positivism
What is the ultimate source of legitimate law?