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Full-Text Articles in Law

How Practices Make Principles, And How Principles Make Rules, Mitchell N. Berman Jan 2022

How Practices Make Principles, And How Principles Make Rules, Mitchell N. Berman

All Faculty Scholarship

The most fundamental question in general jurisprudence concerns what makes it the case that the law has the content that it does. This article offers a novel answer. According to the theory it christens “principled positivism,” legal practices ground legal principles, and legal principles determine legal rules. This two-level account of the determination of legal content differs from Hart’s celebrated theory in two essential respects: in relaxing Hart’s requirement that fundamental legal notions depend for their existence on judicial consensus; and in assigning weighted contributory legal norms—“principles”—an essential role in the determination of legal rights, duties, powers, and permissions. Drawing …


Reconsidering The Legal Regulation Of The Usage Of Administrative Policies, Wei Yao, Kenny Chng Jan 2022

Reconsidering The Legal Regulation Of The Usage Of Administrative Policies, Wei Yao, Kenny Chng

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Policies are of great practical importance in administrative governance. Yet, doctrinal and normative ambiguities remain in the law regulating the usage of administrative policies. Specifically, there exists a well-known tension between the rule against fettering and the legitimate expectations doctrine. Approaching this issue from a normative angle and drawing upon T.R.S. Allan’s reflections on the rule of law, the paper will argue that a unified legal approach governing the usage of administrative policies, premised on the normative objective of furthering the rule of law as the rule of reason, will go a significant way towards resolving this tension and addressing …