Hart's Expressivism and His Benthamite Project

49 Pages Posted: 30 Jul 2010

See all articles by Kevin Toh

Kevin Toh

University College London

Date Written: 2005

Abstract

The paper argues that H.L.A. Hart conceived internal legal statements as normative statements, and more particularly that he developed an expressivist analysis of internal legal statements that bears strong influences of his predecessors and contemporaries who advocated expressivist analyses of ethical statements. It also takes up Ronald Dworkin’s influential criticism of Hart’s legal theory, according to which Hart cannot account for some genuine legal disagreements. Dworkin’s criticism is founded on a mischaracterization of Hart’s analysis as a descriptivist analysis of the sort that both G.E. Moore and the early emotivists criticized. In his expressivist analysis Hart had an account of internal legal statements that was designed to explain normative disagreements.

Suggested Citation

Toh, Kevin, Hart's Expressivism and His Benthamite Project (2005). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1650746 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1650746

Kevin Toh (Contact Author)

University College London ( email )

Bentham House
4-8 Endsleigh Gardens
London, WC1E OEG
United Kingdom

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