UNC School of Law The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Bentham and Austin argued for law’s positivism; that real law is entirely separate from “morality”. Kant was also criticised by Friedrich Nietzsche, who rejected the principle of equality, and believed that law emanates from the will to power, and cannot be labeled as “moral” or “immoral”. Definitions of law often raise the question of the extent to which law incorporates morality. John Austin’s utilitarian answer was that law is “commands, backed by threat of sanctions, from a sovereign, to whom people have a habit of obedience”. Natural lawyers on the other side, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, argue that law reflects essentially moral and unchangeable laws of nature.
- For legal practice in multilateral institutions, government agencies, NGOs, law firms, and private sector work.
- The custom and practice of the legal profession is an important part of people’s access to justice, whilst civil society is a term used to refer to the