Abstract

This article argues that the apparent incompatibility between Social Theses about the nature of law and the Coherence (or Interpretivist) Thesis should be resolved by seeing them as representing two different conceptions of law. The Social Thesis associated with Exclusive Positivism is a powerful device for understanding the relationship between law and the citizen. But its central features, which turn on the authoritative nature of law, do not necessarily apply to the conception of law used by judges when deciding cases. Failure to recognize the concurrence of the two conceptions of law can conceal some important issues of justice