METHODOLOGY IN JURISPRUDENCE:

Abstract

As with many issues in contemporary jurisprudence, a host of recent debates concerning the proper methodology for legal theorists to adopt have been set into motion by H.L.A. Hart's The Concept of Law.H.L.A. HART, THE CONCEPT OF LAW (1st ed., 1961; 2nd ed. with Postscript, Penelope A. Bulloch and Joseph Raz, eds., 1994). All page references to this work are given according to the pagination in the 2nd edition. In the opening pages of the original edition of the book, Hart presents legal scholars in a self-reflective light, claming that they have a distinctive tendency to be drawn into theoretical debates concerning the subject matter of their discipline: “No vast literature is dedicated to answering the questions ‘What is chemistry?’ or ‘What is medicine?,’ as it is to the question ‘What is law?’HART, supra note 1, at 1.