Institutional Legal Facts

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-3

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2. The Concept of Legal Systems

   • Dick W. P. Ruiter

   Pages 5-36

3. Speech Acts

   • Dick W. P. Ruiter

   Pages 37-79

4. Acts-in-the-Law

   • Dick W. P. Ruiter

   Pages 81-102

5. Negative Acts-in-the-Law

   • Dick W. P. Ruiter

   Pages 103-129

6. Logical Relations Between Legal Norms

   • Dick W. P. Ruiter

   Pages 131-159

7. General Norms and Rules

   • Dick W. P. Ruiter

   Pages 161-203

8. Legal Institutions

   • Dick W. P. Ruiter

   Pages 205-225

9. Back Matter

   Pages 227-239

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Law is traditionally conceived as consisting of norms of conduct and power-conferring norms. This conception, however, is unable to account for a variety of elements of modern legal systems that differ significantly from the classical notions. This book concerns the problem of which results of human activity can obtain legal validity. The author makes use of recent findings in speech act theory, especially John R. Searle and Daniel Vanderveken's illocutionary logic. He sets out a theory of legal norms conceived as institutional legal facts resulting from performances of speech acts specified in power-conferring norms. The theory provides a classification of acts-in-the-law and of legal norms resulting from performances of these. Finally, the transition is made from institutional legal facts to legal institutions. The book is a contribution to the institutional theory of law as developed by N. MacCormick and O. Weinberger.

• John Rogers Searle
• Rule of Recognition
• logic
• theory of law

• Department of Public Administration and Public Policy, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

  Dick W. P. Ruiter

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