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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
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    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Legal validity requires more than institutional enactment... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→A law becomes an offence solely because of the fact that Parliament enacted it, not because of any evaluative judgment about whether enactment was a good idea.

    Legal validity requires more than institutional enactment; it requires minimal conformity with moral principles (Fuller's inner morality of law).

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    1 reason for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Laws that systematically violate basic fairness (retroactive punishment, arbitrary enforcement) undermine their own internal coherence and citizen compliance.
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    • 2.Legal systems claiming authority must justify that authority; pure positivism offers no principled basis to distinguish valid law from mere coercive command.
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    • 3.Fuller's eight principles (generality, publicity, clarity, consistency) are functional requirements for law itself, not external moral impositions on it.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Unjust laws remain legally binding and enforceable; their injustice is a separate moral critique that doesn't affect their legal validity or bindingness.
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    • 2.Fuller's principles describe how laws operate effectively, not necessary conditions for validity—a clear but immoral law remains valid law.
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    • 3.Merging legality with morality grants judges and citizens dangerous license to reject laws they deem insufficiently moral, destabilizing rule of law.
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    Connections

    2 topics

    Philosophy of Language1 linkedJustice & Punishment1 linked

    Related

    A law becomes an offence solely because of the fact that Parliament enacted it, ...Fuller's eight principles (generality, publicity, clarity, consistency) are func...Fuller's principles describe how laws operate effectively, not necessary conditi...Laws that systematically violate basic fairness (retroactive punishment, arbitra...
    +3 moreShow less
    Legal systems claiming authority must justify that authority; pure positivism of...Merging legality with morality grants judges and citizens dangerous license to r...Unjust laws remain legally binding and enforceable; their injustice is a separat...

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit