ScholarsArchive (Brigham Young University) · 1986 · 12 citations · 0 references
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LawJurisprudencePhilosophyLegal PositivismNormative JurisprudencePhilosophy Of LawLegal StandardsLegal SystemsNatural Law TheoryPositivismRule Of LawSeparation Of MoralityClassical Legal PositivismConventionalism In LawInternal StandardsLegal Positivism CritiqueMoral Content Of LawMoral ConventionalismPositivist Theory Of LawStandards
The classic opposition of legal positivism and natural law theory resurfaces continually and reminds us that we have yet to resolve this key conflict in our ways of understanding the moral authority of law. The strengths and weaknesses of the two theories are reviewed—both have fatal flaws. Conventionalism is proposed as a means of finding internal standards in a man-made system of law. The naturally emerging standards for a conventionalist system of law turn out to be the already familiar principles of the rule of law.