The Authority of Law

............................................................................................................................
Description
This classic collection of essays, first published in 1979, has had an enduring influence on philosophical work on the nature of law and its relation to morality. Raz begins by presenting an analysis of the concept of authority and what is involved in law's claim to moral authority. He then develops a detailed explanation of the nature of law and legal systems, presenting a seminal argument for legal positivism. Within this framework Raz then examines the areas of legal thought that have been viewed as impregnated with moral values, namely the social functions of law, the ideal of the rule of law, and the adjudicative role of the courts. The final part of the book is given to understanding the proper moral attitude of a citizen towards the law. Raz examines whether the citizen is under a moral obligation to obey the law and whether there is a right to dissent. Two appendices, and a new preface, added for the revised edition, develop Raz's views on the nature of law, offering a further dialogue with the work of Hans Kelsen, and a reply to Robert Alexy's criticisms of legal positivism.
This revised edition makes accessible one of the classic works of modern legal philosophy, and represents an ideal companion to Raz's new collection, Between Authority and Interpretation.
............................................................................................................................
Contents
I. Law and Authority
1.    Legitimate Authority
2.    The Claims of Law
II. The Nature of Law and Natural Law
3.    Legal Positivism and the Sources of Law
4.    Legal Reasons, Sources, and Gaps
5.    The Identity of Legal System
6.    The Institutional Nature of Law
7.    Kelsen’s Theory of the Basic Norm
8.    Legal Validity
III. Internal Legal Values
9.    The Functions of Law
10.  Law and Value in Adjudication
11.  The Rule of Law and its Virtue
IV. Moral Attitudes to the Law
12.  The Obligation to Obey the Law
13.  Respect for Law
14.  A Right to Dissent? I. Civil Disobedience
15.  A Right to Dissent? II. Conscientious Objection
V. Appendices
16.  The Purity of the Theory
17.  The Argument from Justice, or How Not to Reply to Legal Positivism
Index
............................................................................................................................
Author Details
Joseph Raz is Tutor in Jurisprudence and Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. He is author of The Concept of a Legal System (Clarendon Press. 1970, 2nd edn. 1980), and editor of Practical Reasoning (Oxford Readings in Philosophy, 1978), and (with P. M. S. Hacker) Law, Morality, and Society: Essays in Honour of H. L. A. Hart (Clarendon Press, 1977).
............................................................................................................................