ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the protracted, inconclusive and sometimes unedifying debate prompted by H. L. A. Hart's famous claim in the Preface to The Concept of Law that the book might be regarded as a contribution not only to analytical jurisprudence but also to descriptive sociology. It reviews his own reflections on the claim, the arguments of legal theory to which his claim gave rise, and the reasons for thinking that the structure of his own theory prevented him from following through on the insights from which his claim proceeded. The chapter also examines Hart's original claim, interpreting it in light of the archival materials—particularly Hart's working notebooks—which were available to author as his biographer. It discusses the relationship between Hart's idea that legal theory had to do with both analytical jurisprudence and descriptive sociology, and what might be called the project of special as opposed to general jurisprudence.
