Book contents
- The Long Arc of Legality
- The Long Arc of Legality
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 The Puzzle of Very Unjust Law I
- 2 The Puzzle of Very Unjust Law II
- 3 The Constitution of Legal Authority / The Authority of Legal Constitutions
- 4 The Janus-Faced Constitution
- 5 The Politics of Legal Space
- 6 Legality’s Promise
- Book part
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - Legality’s Promise
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 January 2022
- The Long Arc of Legality
- The Long Arc of Legality
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 The Puzzle of Very Unjust Law I
- 2 The Puzzle of Very Unjust Law II
- 3 The Constitution of Legal Authority / The Authority of Legal Constitutions
- 4 The Janus-Faced Constitution
- 5 The Politics of Legal Space
- 6 Legality’s Promise
- Book part
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In this chapter, I bring together the themes explored in the preceding chapters. In particular, I elaborate the main implication of Dworkin’s remark in the manuscript version of Justice for Hedgehogs that it would be counterintuitive to think that ‘most of the subjects of most of the political communities over history had no moral duty to obey the laws of their community’.1 As I suggested at the end of Chapter 1, the implication is that the moral record of the law of a society, the fund of values in fact established over time, amounts to what Hobbes told us is ‘the publique Conscience, by which … [the subject] hath already undertaken to be guided’.2
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Long Arc of LegalityHobbes, Kelsen, Hart, pp. 352 - 422Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022