To Whom the Rules Apply

This chapter is concerned with two arguments for the claim that the norms of an institutional normative system with moral criteria of validity are incapable of guiding behavior (the Guidance Arguments). The problem, on this line of reasoning, is that neither a rule of recognition that validates norms on the basis of moral merit nor a norm that is valid in virtue of moral merit can properly guide the people they must be able to guide to perform law’s conceptual function. This chapter thus challenges the Guidance Arguments. It argues that the guidance function of law does not imply that every legal norm must be capable of guiding or informing the behavior of every person. It implies only that every legal norm must be capable of guiding or informing the behavior of every person whose behavior it governs.