The Actual Validity of Law

Abstract

When, and in what sense are laws ever "valid"? Applying republican legal principles to the question of legal validity will demonstrate that the actual validity of a law always ultimately depends on the law's own underlying moral justification. To see why, one must first disentangle three senses of the word "valid." Some laws are valid (actually valid) because they actually deserve to be obeyed. Some laws are valid (legally valid) because a particular legal system asserts that they ought to be obeyed. And some laws are valid (morally valid) in the sense that although the legal system in question has not yet made them legally valid, one could morally justify doing so.

Keywords: republicanism, legal theory, theory of law, legal history

JEL Classification: K1, K4