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Legal Positivism And Russell's Paradox, David G. Carlson

Articles

In this Article, I argue that legal positivism is subject to the same paradox as was engendered by Frege's set theory-a paradox that has come to be known as Russell's Paradox. Basically, Frege tried to define what a set is. Russell showed that, because of self-reference, any attempt to define the word "set" led to formal condition. I argue that Russell's analysis can be applied to legal positivism, if "legal positivism" is defined to mean that a complete and closed rule of recognition for law is a logical possibility. I also argue that, to the extent legal positivism claims that …