Bentham’s Command versus Hart’s Authoritative Reason: An Examination of the Principal Interpretations of Bentham’s Imperative Theory of Law in Hart’s ‘Commands and Authoritative Legal Reasons’

This chapter shows Bentham's work on the 'plan of the body of law' and its 'form' was pursued mostly in manuscripts written in French, from 1782 to 1786. This chapter presents the genesis of that work and show in what ways it related directly to Limits: chronologically, first, as it was written in the years following the abandoned drafts of Limits, and thematically. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, Of the Limits of the Penal Branch of Jurisprudence and the 'Projet d' un corps de loix complet' were written in just six years. The concern about form was one way of ensuring that the relevant matter of a legal code would be covered in its entirety, allowing the legislator to produce a 'Pandicaion' or a 'Pannomion'. The preface to the Constitutional Code shows to what extent he continued to rely on advances made during that most crucial decade.