Who Needs Rules of Recognition?
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Description
This chapter asks what a rule of recognition actually is, what it does, and what it is good for. It asks what its relation is to other sorts of secondary rules that we may find in a constitutional system, particularly rules of change. H. L. A. Hart introduced the idea of a rule of recognition, and he made it a key feature of modern jurisprudence; most legal philosophers since Hart have followed him in emphasizing its centrality. But from time to time it is good to question a prevailing paradigm. The chapter poses this question: If we were not committed theoretically, as part of the basic ideology of modern legal positivism, to the centrality of the rule of recognition, what would we say about the importance of recognition in a modern legal system?
Source Publication
The Rule of Recognition and the U.S. Constitution
Source Editors/Authors
Matthew D. Adler, Kenneth Einar Himma
Publication Date
2009
Recommended Citation
Waldron, Jeremy, "Who Needs Rules of Recognition?" (2009). Faculty Chapters. 1590.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1590
