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Definition:
Legal positivism is the legal philosophy which argues that any and all laws are nothing
more and nothing less than simply the expression of the will of whatever authority
created them. Thus, no laws can be regarded as expressions of higher morality or
higher pinciples to which people can appeal when they disagree with the laws. The
creation of laws is simply an exercise in brute force and an expression of power,
not an attempt to realize any loftier moral or social goals.
One example of the philosophy of legal positivism was found recently in a press release from the Ayn Rand Institute. In it Onkar Ghate defended the principle of killing innocent civilians in another country during times of war or other armed conflict. According to Ghate:
The government of a free nation is simply the agent of its citizens, charged with one fundamental responsibility: to secure the individual rights -- and very lives -- of its citizens through the use of retaliatory force.
This is an almost perfect expression of legal positivism: the government (as a force for law) is simply an expression of the will of the sovereign authority, which in this case is the group of citizens eligible to vote. Thus, the possible killing of innocent civilians by the government is justified by arguing that such actions are done on behalf of the will of authority that created the government rather than by arguing from higher moral principles.
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Related Resources:
What are Political and Legal Philosophy
The Philosophy of Politics and the Philosophy of Law are often studied separately, but they are presented here jointly because they both come back to the same thing: the study of force. Politics is the study of political force in the general community, while jurisprudence is the study of how laws can and should be used to achieve political and social goals.What is Philosophy?
What is philosophy? Is there any point in studying philosophy, or is it a useless subject? What are the different branches of philosophy - what's the difference between aestheitcs and ethics? What's the difference between metaphysics and epistemology?
