Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences / Herbert Hart’s Doctrine of Indeterminacy in Law (1949–1961): Main Stages of Development

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Issue
Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences. 2022 15 (3)
Authors
Kasatkin, Sergei N.
Contact information
Kasatkin, Sergei N.:Samara State University of Economics Samara, Russian Federation;
Keywords
H.L.A. Hart; indeterminacy in law; open texture; legal language; legal concepts; ascriptivity; analytical jurisprudence; legal reasoning; judicial discretion; legal positivism; analytical philosophy of law
Abstract

This article challenges a traditional account of a British philosopher and jurist H.L.A. Hart’s doctrine of indeterminacy in law, according to which this doctrine is associated with the ideas of “open texture” of legal terms / rules and problems of judicial decision and discretion, expressed in The Concept of Law treatise (1961) and, partly, in the essay Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals (1958). The article reconstructs development of Hart’s corresponding views and distinguishes three main stages of this development associated with the author’s 1949, 1953–1957, and 1958–1961 texts. In these texts problems of indeterminacy appear in different contexts, forms, roles, and so on, irreducible to the ideas of “open texture”. As a result the article substantiates conclusions about an earlier dating of Hart’s doctrine, its broader content, complex structure, diversity of terminology, etc., that helps to provide its more balanced assessment and use

Pages
418-422
DOI
10.17516/1997-1370-0226
Paper at repository of SibFU
https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/68982

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