The Force Of Law As The Nature Of Law

The force of law is one of the most important aspects in the concept of law.The law would always make effects on our actions in a way that confronts with our willing and then the force of law is once thought to be the essence of the law's nature.In order to differentiate the law from the moral norms,the law is explained to be the general orders backed by threats which are issued by the sovereign and the force of law to be the essence character in the concept of law.It tries to build the legal system on the basis of the force,and then identify the law.However,this theory is criticized mainly from view of the variety of law and the normativity of the law,and the latter one denies any possibility of the essential statues of the force.After having criticized the theory of sovereignty,Hart,as well as other famous scholars,raises a theory of rule that consists of primary rule and secondary rule.The theory of rule could explain the internal view in social normal system while the theory of sovereignty could only provide explanation for external views.Normativity,instead of coercion or force of law,is the nature of concept of law.By excluding personal balance of first-order reasons,the law,a kind of authoritative norms,works as a second-order reason and determines the practical reasons.This thesis,however,tries to defend the status of the force in the problem of concept of law while acknowledging the important role of normativity and authority.To begin with,we shall explain what the force of law and the nature of concept of law means.The force of law,different from violence,punishment or sanction,means the objective ability to provide a motive and acting reasons for subjects.It includes negative motivations as well as positive incentives.The nature of concept of law is an answer to what is law and to be used to explain,judge and identify the scene of law.Traditional category theory focus on the necessary and sufficient conditions of a concept and draw a distinct border line,however,it could not explain all borderline problems.Ludwig Wittgenstein believes that there is not something common to all under a phenomenon for our process of identification a concept,however,we could only resort to “family resemblances” or similarities between members of a family.There is no boundary for concepts and we make judgments mainly by comparing with a prototype of a concept.So it is impossible to explain the nature of law in a way of providing necessary and sufficient conditions.Instead,we shall try to find the typical core character.On the one hand,the existence and the validity of legal system depend on the force of law.Whether subjects would accept the rule of recognition and whether most people would obey the law are both social facts and depends on the exist of force of law.On the other hand,the force of law is not only empirically important.If there is no character of force exists,there is no distinction between the scene of law and religious,moral or game norms.As a character of prototype of law's concept,the force of law is to distinct and identify the scene of law and the nature of law.