Study Of The Imperative Theories Of Law

The imperative theories of law refer to the certain theories of law that focus on the study of the coercive nature of law. Coercion is a conception developed following the theoretical route of law of nature and believes that generally, law is composed of the directive indicative or imperative actions of powerful people. More frequently, the imperative theories of law are exclusively used to indicate J.Bentham and J. Austin's claim that"law is a series of universal commands based on the threat of punishment"and H.Kelsen's theory that"Law is a system of conditional instructions (mainly norms) for officials to apply sanctions". Therefore, the study of the imperative theories of law is the exploration of the function, status and pattern of positivism in law study and the certain theories of law formed thereby. In view that this paper tries to break the established methods of analyzing law and seeks evidence of the imperative theories of law from the conception of coercion, acting as a guide and consequently identifying the problems concerned in the study relevant to coercion of law.The paper discusses the topic in three chapters. Chapter One begins with defining coercion and its relevant concepts and then identifies the specific statements, theoretical foundation and main contents of the imperative theories of law. The task of Chapter Two is to examine the criticism towards the imperative theories of law and thereby open up some important controversial fields for the reflection from the angle of philosophy of law. Chapter Three deals with the reflection of the imperative theories of law from the angle of the philosophy of law, which is a new attempt.Chapter One is a survey of the imperative theories of law. The definition of coercion in general sense is introduced first and the different functions of...