Law’s Claim of Legitimate Authority

Abstract

This chapter determines whether the Authority Thesis is true. The Authority Thesis is based on the idea of a conceptual truth that law claims legitimate authority and hence that it is a conceptual truth that law is capable of being legitimate. This is the foundation of the Incorporation Thesis. Insofar as the notion of legitimate authority is a concept with morally normative content, it is important to understand whether it is part of law’s nature that it claims legitimate authority. To this end, the chapter attempts to determine whether the arguments against the Incorporation Thesis succeed, as well as to facilitate a deeper understanding of the conceptual relationships between law and morality.