"There is one right answer for every legal question". Discuss.

"There is one right answer for every legal question". Discuss. The thesis that there is only one right answer for every legal question has been put forward by R. Dworkin, a legal theorist follower of the interpretive theory of law1. Dworkin rejects some aspects of Natural Law Theory and at the same time attacks in a critical but sophisticated way the positivists' approach to law. In order to follow Dworkin's attack is best first to identify the key positions of positivism relevant to the matter under discussion. Positivists say that every society has its special rules which attempt to regulate the citizens' behaviour and provide how the appropriate authority will punish or coerce any unacceptable behaviour. The said rules, positivists continue, may be categorised depending on what their "pedigree" is. They are divided in primary and secondary rules. Primary rules were explained as the rules granting rights or imposing obligations upon the citizens. Secondary rules on the other hand are those rules that lay down the way that must be followed in order to create, amend or abolish primary rules i.e. rules that stipulate how the appropriate legislative body is composed and how it enacts legislation. Positivists add that the community in question follows moral rules as well but the latter are not enforced by the public authority. As long as the cases which need to be regulated

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  • Subject: Law
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