All India Bar Examination (AIBE) 2-II Previous Year Question Papers with Answers

H.L.A. Hart defines 'law' as:

C: A union of primary and secondary rules.

Explanation:

H.L.A. Hart's concept of law is central to his theory of legal positivism. According to Hart, laws are a combination of primary and secondary rules. Let's briefly explain these terms:

Primary Rules: These are the basic rules of conduct that govern human behavior. They tell individuals what they can or cannot do, such as criminal laws or contracts. Primary rules are enforced through sanctions, which can be in the form of penalties or punishments.

Secondary Rules: Secondary rules are rules that provide the framework for creating, modifying, or extinguishing primary rules. They include rules of recognition (criteria for identifying valid laws), rules of change (procedures for creating and amending laws), and rules of adjudication (procedures for resolving disputes about the application of primary rules).

Hart's definition emphasizes that law is not just a command of the sovereign (Option A), nor is it solely about moral principles (Option B) or rules in accordance with reason (Option D). Instead, law is a complex system involving both primary rules that guide behavior and secondary rules that determine how those primary rules are created and enforced.

Option E, "Objective moral principles that depend on the essential nature of the universe," does not align with Hart's legal positivist perspective. Hart's theory is intentionally separated from the idea that law is inherently connected to objective moral principles; he believes that laws can exist independently of moral considerations.

Therefore, Option C, "A union of primary and secondary rules," best represents H.L.A. Hart's definition of law according to his legal positivist theory.