H.L.A.

HART
Herbert Lionel Adolphus Hart was a British philosopher who was a professor of jurisprudence at
the University of Oxford. He is considered the "world's foremost legal philosopher in the twentieth
century". His most famous work is The Concept of Law (1961).
LAWS AND MORALS
Natural Law and Legal Positivism
Legal Positivism, to mean the simple contention that is in no sense a necessary truth that laws
reproduce or satisfy certain demands of morality, though in fact they have often done so.
Classical Theory of Natural Law
There are certain principles of human conduct, awaiting discovery by human reason, with which
man-made law must conform if it is to be valid.
Teleological Conception of Nature
Every nameable kind of existing thing, human, animate, and inanimate, is conceived not only as
tending to maintain itself in existence but as proceeding towards definite optimum state which is the
specific good or the end appropriate for it.
The proper end of human activity is survival.
The Minimum Content of Natural Law
There are certain rules of conduct which any social organization must contain if it is to be viable.
Such universally recognized principles of conduct which have a basis in elementary truths concerning
human beings, their natural environment, and aims, may be considered the minimum content of Natural
Law.
In the form of five truisms, the salient characteristics of human nature upon which this modest
but important minimum rests not only disclose the core good sense in the doctrine of Natural Law but
are of vital importance for the understanding of law and morals.
Five Truisms:
1. Human vulnerability restricting the use of violence
2. Approximate equality restraining the use of aggression
3. Limited altruism requiring a system of mutual forbearances
4. Limited resources instituting and respecting property and promises
5. Limited understanding and strength of will requiring sanctions