ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Brian Bix outlines some unconventional ideas about legal normativity and legal obligation, meant to respond to some persistent difficulties in the area. Part 5.1 introduces the general problem of legal obligation and legal normativity. Part 5.2 presents a subjectivist or voluntarist view of legal normativity (derived from one reading of Hans Kelsen’s works). Parts 5.3 and 5.4 outline a sui generis understanding of legal normativity (associated with some of H. L. A. Hart’s ideas), and respond to some possible objections to that understanding, before concluding.
