ABSTRACT
In order for people to be subject to the claimed authority of the state, it is necessary for the state to achieve de facto authority. Since de facto authority is conditioned by sufficient recognition of its claimed authority, the task is to explain how legal authority can be sufficiently recognized as authoritative in the general population. The challenge is that claims to legal authority presuppose recourse to sources of legal validation. Only norms that are valid according to the relevant legal sources are acceptable precepts of legal authority. The chapter argues that the all-subjected principle depends on the fact that people at large recognize the laws of the state as binding based on internalized standards for legal validity.
