Research On Raz's Thought Of Legal Authority

This article takes exclusive legal positivism on behalf of Raz's thought of legal authority as the research object,and tries to deepen the understanding of legal authority through the study and interpretation of his thought of legal authority.Empirically,as an objective social phenomenon,authority goes with human society.In the early period,as a core concept in the field of political science,authority is usually expressed as a kind of ability to make its audience obey the influence of authority.With the development of society,the field of authority has expanded gradually in modern times.Legal authority,as a unique type of authority,plays an increasingly important role in people's social life.Law appeared with the emergence of country,from early time law as a form of establishing the legitimacy of political authority,and today the law becomes the standard of conduct in people's lives.The authority of law has an important impact on people's lives.Law as an effective means of adjusting social relations regulates people's behavior,and makes people act in accordance with the provisions of the law.Then,how does the law do this? Where does its authority come from? In theory,natural law thinks that the authority of law comes from the authority of morality.Only with the moral legitimacy of the law is the real law.The idea of natural law has been strongly opposed by legal positivism.Legal positivism argues that the claim of natural law to resort to moral authority by legal authority will lead to the lack of authority of law itself.Therefore,legal positivism tries to find reality foundation of legal authority.From mandatory legal authority based on Austen's legal order theory,mandatory legal authority based on Kelsen's the basic norms theory,and Hart's internal legal authority based on the rule of law theory,we can see the legal positivists have always insisted on the separation of legal authority and moral authority.Hart's rule of law was challenged by Dworkin's principle of law,and Dworkin thought that the rule of law of Hart could not explain the existence of the principle of law based on political morality.Accordingly,Dworkin established the authority of the law on the basis of moral authority,which is undoubtedly a great challenge to the legal authority of legal positivism,which separates morality from law.As a typical representative of exclusive legal positivism,Raz firmly defends the basic position of legal positivism with his thought of legal authority.Raz argues that moral principles can not be part of the law by virtue of their substance.The authoritative nature of the law requires that people rely on the social origins of their existence rather than moral arguments in identifying the law.Raz introduces the practical reason into the study of legal authority for the first time,and explains the essence of legal authority by “reason theory”.In Raz's view,legal authority is the exclusive reason for people's behavior,and the existence of legal rules plays a decisive role in people's behavioral reasoning.Raz argues the legitimacy of legal authority by “the dependency thesis”,“the preemption thesis”,and “the normal justification thesis”,and thus formed his service legal authority view.The essence of legal authority is to provide services for its audience,as a practical authority to provide normative guidance for people's behavior.Legal authority is based on the comprehensive balance of other behavioral reasons held by people.It acts as a mediator between people's behavioral reason and valid reason,and makes people realize that they follow the guidelines of legal authority than act according to their own reason will be better in accordance with the correct reasons for action,to achieve the goal of action.The legal authority with service function is justified,so it can replace people's own behavioral reason,and it has priority in the application.But the authority of the law does not mean that people have the general moral obligation to obey the law.The legal authority as an exclusive reason does not limit people's freedom of thought and critical reflection on authority.Instead,it provides the public known behavior standards,to promote social cooperation and safeguard the individual autonomy.Raz proposed that respecting the law is an option to achieve individual autonomy,thus resolving the question of the existence of the legitimate authority of Wolf's authority paradox.Raz's thought of legal authority has far-reaching influence in the history of the development of legal philosophy.His unique charm lies in the introduction of the theory of authority into the nature of law,which gives us a deeper understanding of the practical characteristics of legal authority.The authority of law is a legitimate practice authority,so it can provide effective guidance for our behavior;promote social cooperation,maintaining the normal operation of social order.It is of great significance to establish the legal authority in the whole society,in order to realize the important role of law in state governance.Raz's view of service legal authority tells us that authority is one of the essential attributes of law.Only when law has enough authority in a society can it play an effective guiding role on people's behavior.However,for a long time,the legal authority in China has not really set up.On the one hand,the traditional Confucian culture advocates the rule of virtue,which has profound influence on people's thinking and behavior.On the other hand,the authority of the law lies in the implementation,but the quality of legislation is not high,the law is not strict and the justice is unfair.These phenomenon seriously affected people's trust in the legal system,undermining the authority of the law.With Raz's thought of legal authority,we should cultivate the awareness of the rule in the whole society,make people realize the importance and necessity of observing the law through long-term legal education,make people respect the legal authority in the heart;In the field of judicial practice,through the judicial reform for the judge according to the independent exercise of judicial power to provide system guarantee,the judge in the judiciary in the strict law as an exclusive reason to be applied,according to the ruling,not subject to any outside factors,promote the realization of judicial authority,and promote the realization of judicial authority.Through the above path,finally realizes the legal authority on the effective guidance to our citizens' social life.