... not the gunmen situation writ large' stresses Hart in his essay 'The separation of law and morality.' A legal system must surely be somewhat better, than the rule over a petrified public by gangsters where the general populace acts out of pure fear of the consequences. One acts in a valid normative system, because one believes one ought to do so and not merely because one fears the consequences of acting to the contrary. To Hart the underlying fault with Austin's approach is that it fails to consider the concept of a rule. The elements of Austin's theory 'do not include and cannot by their combination yield, the idea of a rule, without which we cannot hope to elucidate even the most elementary forms of law1.' However admits Hart, the idea of a rule is not a simple one and this is where his 'internal aspect' falls into place. To Hart, ...

See this essay or coursework document in full right now