Author Archives: F. E. Guerra-Pujol

Alternative Title: Leiter’s Legal Pyramid We identified three potential problems with H.L.A. Hart’s “rule of recognition” in my previous post. In summary, Problem #1 is that Hart’s rule of recognition is not really a “rule” in any conventional sense; problem … Continue reading →

Alternative Title: Three Blind Spots with Hart’s Theory of Law We devoted our previous two blog posts to H.L.A. Hart’s influential theory of positive law. Here, I will identify three blind spots in Hart’s theory of law. The source of … Continue reading →

I introduced H.L.A. Hart’s influential theory of positive law in my previous post. Specifically, we saw that Hart famously defined “law” as the union of primary and secondary rules: the primary rules are “the rules of the game,” i.e. rules … Continue reading →

What is law, and how is law different from morality? Last week, we reviewed John Austin’s “command theory of law” (or Legal Positivism 1.0) and Hans Kelsen’s idea of a “basic norm” (Legal Positivism 2.0). This week, we will introduce … Continue reading →

Happy Sunday! I put together a home-made photographic collage of some of the leading gents and dames of film noir. (Here is my previous film noir collage.) You’re welcome …

Why don’t we make the two weeks between June 19 (Juneteenth) and July 4 (Independence Day), inclusive, a two-week national holiday for all non-essential workers? No schools, no commerce, no work. The French, for example, have the whole of August … Continue reading →

Happy Independence Day? My friend, colleague, and fellow intellectual saboteur Alex Tabarrok has brought to my attention this deleted paragraph from an early draft of the original Declaration of Independence. I have also cut-and-pasted Jefferson’s lost paragraph below: [King George] … Continue reading →

Now available for the masses on Disney+. Aja Romano explains here why Hamilton is “impossible to pin down.” (Maybe this will help.) As an aside, my wife Sydjia and I had the honor of seeing the Hamilton musical on stage … Continue reading →

Via Quora: “Which two pictures, when compared, best capture the difference between Obama and Trump for you?” Me: How about these two? (Although in fairness to 45, there are plenty of pictures of 44 being selfish with his umbrella too. … Continue reading →