The concept of law / H. L. A. Hart

Includes index

I. Persistent Questions
1. Perplexities of legal theory
2. Three recurrent issues
3. Definition
II. Laws, Commands, and Orders
1. Varieties of imperatives
2. Law as coercive orders
III. The Variety of Law
1. The content of law
2. The range of application
3. Modes of origin
IV. Sovereign and Subject
1. The habit of obedience and the continuity of law
2. The persistence of law
3. Legal limitations on legislative power
4. The sovereign behind the legislature
V. Law as the Union of Primary and Secondary Rules
1. A fresh start
2. The idea of obligation
3. The elements of law
VI. The Foundations of a Legal System
1. Rule of recognition and legal validity
2. New questions
3. The pathology of a legal system
VII. Formalism and Rule-Scepticism
1. The open texture of law
2. Varieties of rule-scepticism
3. Finality and infallibility in judicial decision
4. Uncertainty in the rule of recognition
VIII. Justice and Morality
1. Principles of justice
2. Moral and legal obligation
3. Moral ideals and social criticism
IX. Laws and Morals
1. Natural law and legal positivism
2. The minimum content of natural law
3. Legal validity and moral value
X. International Law
1. Sources of doubt
2. Obligations and sanctions
3. Obligation and the sovereignty of states
4. International law and morality
5. Analogies of form and content
Postscript
Introductory
1. The Nature of Legal Theory
2. The Nature of Legal Positivism
(i) Positivism as a semantic theory
(ii) Positivism as an interpretive theory
(iii) Soft positivism
3. The Nature of Rules
(i) The practice theory of rules
(ii) Rules and principles
4. Principles and the Rule of Recognition
Pedigree and interpretation
5. Law and Morality
(i) Rights and duties
(ii) The identification of the law
6. Judicial Discretion

eng.