An immense task: Hart sull'obbligo di obbedire al diritto

Abstract

The topic of legal normativity absorbed Hart until the last years of his life. This paper offers a diachronic analysis of Hart’s perspective on the obligation to obey the law. The aim is to show that, at least as regards the justification of the obligation to obey the law, Hart’s former attempt to maintain the autonomy of law from morality and coercion is not convincing and that the “conventionalist turn” sketched in the Postscript leads to a dead end. Therefore, to give up the autonomy of legal obligation from moral obligation seems the only way forward, being aware that this move does not imply the abjuration of legal positivism.