ABSTRACT
In legal theory, Legal Positivism is generally taken to be the view that the concept of law can be elucidated without reference to morality, and that it is the duty of judges to determine the content of and apply the law without recourse to moral judgments. To many people, lawyers and laypersons alike, this seems outrageous. If the law is not deeply imbued with our moral convictions, how can it command our respect? If law can be law without being moral then our legal obligations can be no more than coercion. Nor does it seem that the actual operations of law are intelligible unless they are brought into some sort of supportive relationship to at least part of the morality of the community irt question.1 Legal Positivis~ must, therefore, be mistaken in theory and perhaps immoral in practice.2
