Title: Playing by the Rules: A Philosophical Examination of Rule-Based Decision-Making in Law and in Life by Frederick Schauer
Abstract: A. Hart's The Concept of Law. the notion of a rule has become one of the central focuses in contemporary legal theory.In classical jurisprudence, law is viewed as either commands issued by a sovereign, orders backed by threats, or directives derived from a cenain natural order.Contemporary jurisprudence in a sense starts with Hart's definition of law as an affair of rules.For Hart, law is the union of primary and secondary rules.'Says Hart, Our justification for as~igning lo rhe union of primary and secondary rules this centr,11 place is nor that they will there do the work of a dictionary, but that they have great explanatory power.! Following Hart's example.many jurists and legal philosophers are increasingly employing the notion of rules to explain jurisprudential concepts and issues, such as: legal validity, the normativity of law.legal obligation, legitimate authority.legal reasoning and judicial decision making.Ironically. the notion of a rule itself, though it has been wielded in almost every substantial work in analytical jurisprudence in the past thirty years, to a large extent remains unexamined.