caa a22 4500 388050926 CHVBK 20180307125053.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e199812 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S1352325200001105 doi S1352325200001105 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S1352325200001105 Perry Stephen R. University of Pennsylvania Hart's Methodological Positivism [Elektronische Daten] [Stephen R. Perry] To understand H.L.A. Hart's general theory of law, it is helpful to distinguish between substantive and methodological legal positivism. Substantive legal positivism is the view that there is no necessary connection between morality and the content of law. Methodological legal positivism is the view that legal theory can and should offer a normatively neutral description of a particular social phenomenon, namely law. Methodological positivism holds, we might say, not that there is no necessary connection between morality and law, but rather that there is no connection, necessary or otherwise, between morality and legal theory. The respective claims of substantive and methodological positivism are, at least on the surface, logically independent. Hobbes and Bentham employed normative methodologies to defend versions of substantive positivism, and in modern times Michael Moore has developed what can be regarded as a variant of methodological positivism to defend a theory of natural law. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998 Legal Theory Cambridge University Press 4/4(1998-12), 427-467 1352-3252 4:4<427 1998 4 LEG https://doi.org/10.1017/S1352325200001105 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S1352325200001105 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Perry Stephen R. University of Pennsylvania NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Legal Theory Cambridge University Press 4/4(1998-12), 427-467 1352-3252 4:4<427 1998 4 LEG CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge