Interpretation theory of social Rule under The Improper Solicitation and Graft Act

This article examines methodological debates in legal philosophy by focusing on two (related) methodological claims in H. L. A. Hart’s 1961 book, The Concept of Law: that Hart’s theory is both general and descriptive, and an exercise in both linguistic analysis and descriptive sociology. It considers what these claims reveal about Hart’s theoretical ambitions and methodological commitments, and what light they shed on debates in legal philosophy since then. In particular, it discusses the most important elements of Hart’s theory, such as the union of primary and secondary rules in law, the “rule of recognition” as a social rule, and the relationship between legal and moral norms. It also explores several objections to Hart’s approach to the problems of legal philosophy, including one that questions the fruitfulness of the methodology of conceptual analysis. Finally, it analyzes the argument of Hart and all legal positivists that legal systems are social constructs.

Download Full-text

How Leaders deal with Pro-Social Rule Breaking: Unravelling their rationales for response behavior

Academy of Management Proceedings ◽

10.5465/ambpp.2021.13148abstract ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 (1) ◽

pp. 13148

Author(s):

Annika Janssen ◽

Peter Eberl

Keyword(s):

Response Behavior ◽

Social Rule ◽

Rule Breaking

Download Full-text

Trust, Mistrust, and Desertion in Civil Wars

Desertion ◽

10.7591/cornell/9781501752940.003.0002 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 15-37

Author(s):

Théodore McLauchlin

Keyword(s):

Civil Wars ◽

Armed Groups ◽

Social Rule ◽

Armed Group ◽

South Vietnam ◽

Military Unit

This chapter mentions Viet Cong (VC) companies in South Vietnam that developed serious morale and motivation problems, which pose a major risk of desertion and defection. It investigates where trust and cooperation will come from if soldiers look for their chance to desert and put up a false front of enthusiasm and conviction. It also proposes a crucial way of keeping soldiers fighting through a norm of cooperation in a military unit, emphasizing a social rule saying that each will fight if others do. The chapter discusses whether an armed group can rely simply on the threat of punishment to keep combatants fighting, even if trust is not in the cards. It describes deeply mistrustful armed groups that use factional memberships or stereotypes to assess soldiers' loyalties, showing coercion as arbitrary persecution.

Download Full-text

Rising from the ordinary: Virtue, the justice motif and moral change

Anthropological Theory ◽

10.1177/1463499620932058 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 146349962093205

Author(s):

Susanne Brandtstädter

Keyword(s):

Moral Agency ◽

Northern China ◽

The Other ◽

Moral Anthropology ◽

Moral Change ◽

Social Rule ◽

Ordinary Life ◽

Practical Principle ◽

Social Dynamic ◽

Chinese Peasant

Justice understood as a practical principle and virtue has remained an understudied subject in the anthropology of morality. Moral anthropology has explored the moral or ethical as a space of freedom and creativity, whereas justice has often been associated with rule-following or even the law. In contrast, my paper explores justice as a virtue whose social dynamic can initiate moral change in ordinary life. This virtue, as I understand it, comprises not only a disposition to conform to established norms but also a capacity to reformulate these in the pursuit of social justice. My ethnography of Chinese peasant lawyers’ moral agency suggests that their understanding of justice as an essentially social, rule-governed and outcome-oriented virtue can grant new insights into the dynamics of moral innovation that arise in ordinary life. The peasant lawyers of rural northern China pursue moral change through combining moral reasoning about justice with principled action for justice and the provision of benefits for victims of injustice. It is the concern with the consequences of principled action that distinguishes justice as a social virtue from the other virtues, and the justice motif from alternative drivers of social change.

Download Full-text