On Descriptive Sociology In H.L.A. Hart's Legal Theory

H. L. A. Hart, who is the representative leading figure of the Neo-Analytic Jurisprudence, in constructing the legal theory of positivism that is both general and descriptive, mainly is through the two methods of the semantic analytical philosophy and descriptive sociology. However, in the past several decades, the noticeable method of H. L. A. Hart's methodology was the semantic analytical method merely, but the method of descriptive sociology has been thoroughly ignored and contemned. Therefore, this article studies on the descriptive sociology of H. L. A. Hart's legal theory through internal aspect of rules. The full text is divided into four major parts altogether.In the first part, the question proposed and the framework of the argument established. The central question of the article is whether Hart's descriptive sociology in the process of establishing his legal theory can be carried out and realized in the significance and the function which are supposed in advance. There are some intensions involved probably in two dimensions: In the external dimension, there is an intension between Hart's general jurisprudence and descriptive jurisprudence which attains by way of the descriptive sociology which comes from concrete experience and abstract generality; in the internal dimension, how the method of descriptive sociology can attain the neutrality in value and without legitimate goal which itself contains.In the second part, restore the important status of descriptive sociology in Hart's legal theory. The argument of this part is the premising work before the research. First of all, this article analyzed the reason why descriptive sociology had always been neglected by the researchers before, it is not only because the researchers who placed themselves in the domain...