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Full Idea
Hart replaced Austin's concept of positive law as sovereign command with a more democratic ideal. In modern law-based societies the authority of law depends on the people's acceptance of a law's enduring validity.
Gist of Idea
Hart replaced positivism with the democratic requirement of the people's acceptance
Source
report of H.L.A. Hart (The Concept of Law [1961]) by Jens Zimmermann - Hermeneutics: a very short introduction 6 'Hart'
Book Ref
Zimmerman,Jens: 'Hermeneutics: very short introduction' [OUP 2015], p.103
A Reaction
Presumably the ancestor of this view is the social contract of Hobbes and Locke.
| 7403 | Grotius ignored elaborate natural law theories, preferring a basic right of self-preservation [Grotius, by Tuck] |
| 7573 | The legal positivism of Hobbes said law is just formal or procedural [Hobbes, by Jolley] |
| 20930 | The existence of law is one thing, its merits and demerits another [Austin,J] |
| 20931 | Hart replaced positivism with the democratic requirement of the people's acceptance [Hart,HLA, by Zimmermann,J] |
| 7592 | For positivists law is a matter of form, for naturalists it is a matter of content [Scruton] |
| 20492 | Following some laws is not a moral matter; trivial traffic rules, for example [Wolff,J] |