Positivism and obedience in Herbert Hart

Abstract

The issue of respect for legality has always served as a point of complaint to
the opponents of legal positivism. This article aims to investigate the theme of obedience to the laws in the thinking of Herbert Hart, one of the most important jurists of the twentieth century, affiliated to the current called legal positivism. We’ll see how Hart developed a sophisticated argumentation in order to maintain the separation between law and morality, distinguishing characteristic of legal positivism, responding to critics that say that such current
would ratify legal orders marked by situations of injustice.