Examination On Dworkin's "Right Answer" Theory

Dworkin's "right answer thesis" is the basic one in his jurisprudence which is named "law as integrity", and it is the constructive direction about the essential question of law that "what the law is", which is under his model of constructive interpretation, and by the same way, it is foundational thesis in his legal theories under the philosophical demonstration. Therefore, as Dworkin said, "the question whether there is a right answer in a hard case, is the core of mass arguments about what the law is". So there are two landmarks, which standing in the entrance of Dworkin's "law's empire". One is the theory of "law as integrity", the other is the thesis of "right answer".Generally, Dworkin's "right answer thesis" was originated from the controversy between Dworkin's legal theories and neo-positivism in Anglo-American jurisprudence after the World War Two. Facing the fact that the certain and valid legal theories about law which are supporting by neo-positivism waned, Dworkin took the question that "how to defend the authority of law" as his principal purpose and the "hard cases" theory in neo-positivism became his first target. In Hart's "hard cases" theory (which is different from the "hard cases" theory in Dworkin's works), a vague fact that there was a vacancy in the system of rules and the courts had a right of discretion had been hidden in his system of rules. Thus, a new rule, which was not born from Hart's"primary rules" or "secondary rules" but from the courts' free will, injured his concept of law as a system of rules ironically. On the contrary, Dworkin responded Hart's "hard cases" theory with a shocking asseveration, that "mere is only a right answer concerning the complex problems of law and political morality under the legal practice", namely Dworkin's "right answer thesis". Henceforward, this thesis becomes Dworkin's steady conviction and deeply embeds in his thirty-year jurisprudence works.As the direct result of his intrepid assertion, Dworkin conceived a conception of law as integrity to seek a right answer that could safeguard the basic issue of law's validity and certainty. So the conception of law in Dworkin's works is a huge intellective and practicing construction that includes principles, policies and rules, which presents a political program consciously, namely taking the conceptions about justice, due processes and...