Secret Laws

Ratio Juris 25 (3):301-317 (2012)
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Abstract

There is a thesis that legal rules need to be made public because people cannot guide their conduct by rules they cannot know. This thesis has been a mainstay of anti-positivism and the controversy over it continues apace. However, positivism can accommodate the secret laws thesis. The deeper import of the debate over secret laws concerns our understanding of law's nature. In this regard secrecy merits attention as a candidate necessary connection between law and immorality. In addition the mediating role of lawyers as experts in ascertaining the law should be highlighted. It has been widely overlooked despite the fact that lawyers are criterial in Hart's concept of law

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Citations of this work

Why states have no right to privacy, but may be entitled to secrecy: a non-consequentialist defense of state secrecy.Dorota Mokrosinska - 2020 - Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 23 (4):415-444.
The Illuminati Problem and Rules of Recognition.Mikołaj Barczentewicz - 2018 - Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 38 (3):500-527.

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References found in this work

Law and disagreement.Jeremy Waldron - 1999 - New York: Oxford University Press.
The authority of law: essays on law and morality.Joseph Raz - 1979 - New York: Oxford University Press.
The dignity of legislation.Jeremy Waldron - 1999 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
The Dignity of Legislation.Jeremy Waldron - 2000 - Philosophical Quarterly 50 (199):266-268.

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