Mindus, Patricia | 2024
In Zaluski, W., Bourgeois-Gironde, S. & A. Dyrda (eds.) Research Handbook on Legal Evolution. Elgar
This chapter maps the evolution of legal positivism (LP) with an eye to both continuous and discontinuous forms of evolution. A word on etymology is offered: both the idea of positive law as law deliberately imposed, not spontaneously emerged, and the idea of positive law as deprived of intrinsic moral justification are ideas that have evolved into being associated with LP. The varieties of LP show an increased level of complexity: LP has evolved so as to distinguish e.g., between different objects at the core of the theories, different elements within a given substantive theory of law, reasons for obeying positive law from reasons for believing that law has some given feature, evidentialist from pragmatist reasons for belief in LP. To this continuous refinement a radical break is added: the role of coercion in the theoretical architecture has undergone a significant change.
