Chapter 3 Self-test questions

. Which is the least accurate description of legal positivism?

It regards morals and law as inseparable.

It perceives law as commands.

It regards a legal order as a closed logical system.

It espouses the view that there is no necessary connection between morality and law.

. Hart writes: '[T]he certification of something as legally valid is not conclusive of the question of obedience . . . however great the aura of majesty or authority which the official system may have, its demands must in the end be submitted to a moral scrutiny.' What does this say about the nature of legal positivism?

That legal positivism is unconcerned about the morality of the law.

That validly enacted law should always be obeyed.

That moral issues fall outside the official legal system.

That there is no moral duty to obey an unjust law.

. Which proposition below can be characterized as the most powerful refutation of Bentham's argument in support of codification?

The law is too complex to be codified.

Codification ossifies the law.

Bentham fails to take account of the criminal law.

Significant portions of the law are already codified.

. Austin has been described as a 'naïve empiricist.' Why?

Because he neglects the importance of morality.

Because his account of law is based on an anachronistic model of a legal system.

Because he conceives of laws in a pragmatic rather than a conceptual manner.

Because he overlooks the role of law in economic relations.

. Which statement below is the least likely to follow logically from Austin's argument that a sanction consists of the smallest chance of incurring the smallest evil?

All commands include some sanction.

The concept of a command contains the likelihood that a sanction will follow failure to obey the command.

Without a sanction the mere expression of a wish is not a command.

A command confers power to change one's legal status.

. Why is Bentham's account of sovereignty generally considered to be more sophisticated – and more acceptable – than Austin's?

Because Bentham's Utilitarianism redeems his account of sovereignty.

Because Austin overlooks the significance of morality.

Because Bentham recognizes the possibility of limiting the sovereign's power.

Because Austin incorporates power-conferring rules into his concept of the sovereign's commands.

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