Abstract
Herbert Lionel Adolphus Hart, the leading figure in twentieth century Anglo-American jurisprudence, was born in Harrogate, England on 18 July 1907 and died at the age of 85 in Oxford on 19 December 19921. As an undergraduate at New College, Oxford he “read” Literae Humaniores (Greek and Latin language, and ancient history and philosophy), taking his degree in 1929. Thereafter, he studied law privately and then practiced in London at the Chancery bar from 1932 until 1940. During the war, he was with Mi5 (British military intelligence) and made a major contribution to the “false” D-Day landing plan which more or less successfully deceived the Nazi Command thereby facilitating the Normandy landings. Immediately after the war he returned to New College as a tutor and lecturer in philosophy.
References in parentheses are to pages in The Concept Of Law (2nd ed. 1994 O.U.P.).
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Notes
A.M. Honoré, Herbert Lionel Adolphus Hart, 84 Proc. Of The Brit. Acad. 295–321 (1994). See also the Speeches Delivered at Memorial Ceremony on 6 February 1993 by Sir Isaiah Berlin, Lord Jay, Professor Ronald Dworkin, Mrs. Jean Flood, Professor Joseph Raz, Dr. Bernard Richards, and Professor Alan Ryan, with an addendum by Lord Wilberforce. See also the following obituary notices: The Independent, Dec. 23, 1992; The Daily Telegraph, Dec. 23, 1992; The Times, Dec. 24,1992; The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Jan. 15, 1993.
A full bibliography of Hart’s writings, carefully put together by Professor Stanley Paulson, appeared in 8 Ratio Juris 397–406 (1995).
D.N. MacCormick, H.L.Ä. Hart: In Memoriam, 6 Ratio Juris 337 (1993).
Ronald Dworkin, The Model of Rules, 35 U.Chi.L. Rev. 14 (1967), reprinted in Essays In Legal Philosophy (R. Summers ed., London 1968).
115N.Y. 506,22N.E. 188(1889).
See, e.g., L. Fuller, The Morality of Law133–44 (2nd ed. New Haven 1964). See also R. Summers, H.L.A. Hart’s Concept of Law, 1963 Dukel.J.629, andR. Summers, Toward a Better General Theory of Legal Validity, 15 Rechtstheorie 65 (1984).
Issues In Contemporary Legal Philosophy 36 (R. Gavison ed., Oxford 1987)
For more detail on the limits of predictivism, see R. Summers, Instrumentalism And American Legal Theorych. 5 (Ithaca, 1982).
For a remarkably illuminating analysis of the possible applicability of Hart’s “rule of recognition“ to the complexities of the American system, see Greenawalt, The Rule of Recognition and the Constitution, 85 Mich.L.Rev. 621 (1987).
See R. Summers, The Formal Character of Law, 51 Cambridge L.J. 242 (1992); R. Summers, Der Formale Charakter Des Rechts Ii, 80 Archiv für Rechts-Und Sozialphilosophie 60 (1994); R. Summers, The Formal Character of Law Iii, 25 Rechtstheorie 125 (1994); R. Summers, The Juristic Study of Law’s Formal Character, 8 Ratio Juris 237 (1995).
Honoré, supranote 1, at 312.
See, e.g., P.M.S. Hacker, Hart’s Philosophy of Law inLaw, Morality And Society —Essays In Honor Of H.L.A. Hart(P.M.S. Hacker & J. Raz eds. Oxford 1977); R. Summers, The New Analytical Jurists, 41 Nyul. Rev. 861 (1966); and R. Summers, supranotes 4 and 6.
See supranote 2.
Honoré, supranote 1, at 309, lists among the graduate students and young academics: “A.E. Gottlieb, H. Morris, I. Tammelo, B.M. Barry, V.N. Haksar, W.L. Weinstien, G.D. MacCormick, J.M. Finnis, D.H. Hodgson, R.S. Summers, P.M.S. Hacker, J. Raz, V.B. Bogdanor, G. Gilason, G.R. Carrio, R.E. Gavison, and W.J. Waluchow.” To this list a number may be added including A.M. Honoré, J.R. Lucas, R.M. Dworkin, R. Kent Greenawalt, Philip M. Soper, and Lee D. Irish.
H.L.A. Hart, Kelsen Visited, 10 Uclal.Rev. 709 (1962–63).
H.L.A. Hart, Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals, 71 Harv.L.Rev. 593 (1958).
H.L.A. Hart, Law, Liberty, And Morality (Stanford 1963).
See, e.g., H.L.A. Hart, Barbara Wooton, Crime and the Criminal Law, 74 Yale L.J. 1325 (1965) (book review).
H.L.A. Hart, Analytical Jurisprudence in Mid-Twentieth Century: A Reply to Professor Bodenheimer, 105 U. Pa. L. Rev. 953 (1957).
See, e.g., H.L.A. Hart, American Jurisprudence through English Eyes: The Nightmare and the Noble Dream, 11 Ga.L.Rev. 969 (1977).
Cf. H.L.A. Hart, Is There Knowledge by Acquaintance? Supp. Vol. 23 Proc. Arist. Soc. 69(1949).
See supranote 16.
I am pleased to be able to record that in Ithaca in 1976,1 suggested to Dr. Peter Hacker that there be a Festschrift for Hart in celebration of his work on the occasion of his 70th birthday. The Festschrift appeared the next year, thoughtfully edited by two of his former students, Dr. Hacker and Dr. Joseph Raz: Law, Morality And Society — Essays In Honor Of H.L.A. Hart (Oxford, 1977).
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Summers, R.S., McRoberts, W.G., Goodhart, A.L. (2000). H.L.A. Hart’s the Concept of Law . In: Essays in Legal Theory. Law and Philosophy Library, vol 46. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9407-3_1
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