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Razs Authority of Law
Law
University of Colombo
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Raz's Authority of Law
Article · November 2019
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Annesha Kar Gupta University of London 38 PUBLICATIONS 0 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE
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Raz’s Authority of Law
Dedicated to UK & UN
By Annesha Kar Gupta
Joseph Raz provided the theory of authority which speaks about hard positivism. His social thesis or the
theory of separation says that content of law are not tested on morality. His paradox of authority says that every authority must be tested through with reasons which are against his view of social thesis.
Authority of Law:- According to Raz authority means right to tell us what to do or believe. There are two types of authorities, namely, Practical authority which tells us about what to do and Theoretical
authority which tells us about what to believe. Authorities mediate between the reasons for action and the subjects of the authority to whom those reasons apply. The directives of the authority have practical importance because they tell the subject how to act so that he does not need directly to consider, at
least some of, the reasons that would bear on his acting in the particular circumstance. Arguing against this, Raz says about paradox of authority. This Paradox of authority says that authority is irrational.
Everyone should do believe those reasons which make it right thing to do or believe. The Normal Justification thesis says that authority means to act correctly on the balance of reasons, to act on your
own assessments on the balance of reasons & not on directions of the authorities.
Exclusionary Reasons:- Exclusionary reasons are those which authoritative directives that excludes the
balance of reasons. Raz believes in Legal Positivism means hard Positivism. Raz considered that hard positivism denies law with morality which is not true at all because positivism develops on natural laws. Natural laws are based on morality. So, positivism cannot separate law from morality. As Raz defined
that norms are standard against which human behaviour or other events are assessed. Rules & Orders are norms. Rights of individuals are correlated with duties. Duties are all containing exclusionary
reasons. Power is capacity or ability to create, alter and abolish the norm.
The limits of law:- According to Raz, law has some limitations because of authority. Those limitations are: It must be capable of mediating between the balance of reasons and its subjects. Mediates to deliberate over the balance of reasons, and then lay down a directive which guides the behaviour of its subjects. An authoritative directive does not work, if it does tell the subjects what they are to do. If a directive requires the subject to determine for themselves what ‘the law’ requires, then the law is not being authoritative, and such a directive would not count as law. The law may require its subjects to act ‘fairly and reasonably’ in certain circumstances.
and tested in court. Dworkin and Raz differed on another view that Raz said that rule and principle and policies are not categorically different. According to Dworkin, rules and principles are not categorically different because both of them are our rights, but policies are community goals which are different from principles. Here, Raz cannot be supported because both, policies and principles can be challenged before court of laws and those can be set aside if that is not made for the welfare of the society.
Conclusion:- We can conclude by saying that Raz, being strictly sticking to his theory of hard positivism, neglected the balanced view of authority.
References:-
The concept of a legal system: an introduction to the theory of a legal system by J. Raz; Rights, culture and the law: themes from the legal and political philosophy of Joseph Raz by J. Penner in L. Meyer, S. Paulson and T. Pogge (eds); Ethics in the Public Domain by J. Raz; Jurisprudence -Nature of Jurisprudence or Natural Law and Positivism; Philosophy of Law (Raymond Wacks).
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Razs Authority of Law
Course: Law
University: University of Colombo
