Coercion and the Nature of Law (Oxford Legal Philosophy)

COERCION AND THE NATURE OF LAW argues that it is a conceptually necessary condition for something to count as a system of law according to our conceptual practices that it authorizes the imposition of coercive sanctions for violations of some mandatory norms governing non-official behavior (the Coercion Thesis). The book begins with an explication of the modest approach to conceptual analysis that is deployed throughout. The remainder of the book is concerned to show that an institutional normative system is not reasonably contrived to do anything that law must be able to do for us to make sense of why we adopt systems of law to regulate non-official behavior unless we assume that mandatory norms governing that behavior are backed by the threat of a sovereign; an institutional normative system that satisfies every other plausible existence condition for law is not reasonably contrived to give rise to either objective or subjective first-order motivating reasons to comply with mandatory norms governing non-official behavior unless they are backed by the threat of a coercive sanction. Law’s presumed conceptual normativity can be explained only by the Coercion Thesis. Présentation sur le site de l'éditeur : "The Coercion Thesis has been a subject of longstanding debate, but legal positivist scholarship over the last several decades has concluded that coercion is not necessary for law. Coercion and the Nature of Law is concerned with reviving the Coercion Thesis, presenting a strong case for the inherently coercive nature of legal regulation, and arguing that anything properly characterized as a legal system must back legal norms prohibiting breaches of the peace with the threat of a coercive sanction. Himma presents the argument that people are self-interested beings who must compete in a world of scarcity for everything they need to survive and thrive. The need to compete for resources naturally leads to conflict that can breach the peace, and threatens the ability to live together in a community and reap the social benefits of cooperation. Law only functions as a system if it can maintain the peace enough for community to continue, and thus systems of law cannot succeed in doing anything that we want systems of law to do unless they back laws prohibiting violent assaults on persons or property with the threat of punishment; without sanctions, we would descend into something resembling a condition of war-of-all-against-all. We adopt coercive systems of regulation precisely to avoid having to live under such conditions. The book is divided into three parts: (1) a prima facie logical-empirical case for the Coercion Thesis, (2) a study of the "society of angels" and international law counterexamples, and why they do not refute the thesis, and (3) an analysis of how law guides behaviour and the implications of the Coercion Thesis on reasons for action. Going against the current conventional wisdom in legal philosophy, Himma makes a systematic defence of the Coercion Thesis arguing that coercion or enforcement mechanisms are not only a necessary feature of legal systems, but a conceptually necessary feature of legal systems." The Coercion Thesis has been a subject of longstanding debate, but legal positivist scholarship over the last several decades has concluded that coercion is not necessary for law. Coercion and the Nature of Law is concerned with reviving the Coercion Thesis, presenting a strong case for the inherently coercive nature of legal regulation, and arguing that anything properly characterized as a legal system must back legal norms prohibiting breaches of the peace with the threat of a coercive sanction. 0Himma presents the argument that people are self-interested beings who must compete in a world of scarcity for everything they need to survive and thrive. The need to compete for resources naturally leads to conflict that can breach the peace, and threatens the ability to live together in a community and reap the social benefits of cooperation. Law only functions as a system if it can maintain the peace enough for community to continue, and thus systems of law cannot succeed in doing anything0that we want systems of law to do unless they back laws prohibiting violent assaults on persons or property with the threat of punishment; without sanctions, we would descend into something resembling a condition of war-of-all-against-all. We adopt coercive systems of regulation precisely to avoid having to live under such conditions.0The book is divided into three parts: (1) a prima facie logical-empirical case for the Coercion Thesis, (2) a study of the "society of angels" and international law counterexamples, and why they do not refute the thesis, and (3) an analysis of how law guides behaviour and the implications of the Coercion Thesis on reasons for action.0Going against the current conventional wisdom in legal philosophy, Himma makes a systematic defence of the Coercion Thesis arguing that coercion or enforcement mechanisms are not only a necessary feature of legal systems, but a conceptually necessary feature of legal systems The Coercion Thesis has been a subject of longstanding debate, but legal positivist scholarship over the last several decades has concluded that coercion is not necessary for law. Coercion and the Nature of Law is concerned with reviving the Coercion Thesis, presenting a strong case for the inherently coercive nature of legal regulation, and arguing that anything properly characterized as a legal system must back legal norms prohibiting breaches of the peace with the threat of a coercive sanction. Himma presents the argument that people are self-interested beings who must compete in a world of scarcity for everything they need to survive and thrive. The need to compete for resources naturally leads to conflict that can breach the peace, and threatens the ability to live together in a community and reap the social benefits of cooperation. Law only functions as a system if it can maintain the peace enough for community to continue, and thus systems of law cannot succeed in doing anything that we want systems of law to do unless they back laws prohibiting violent assaults on persons or property with the threat of punishment; without sanctions, we would descend into something resembling a condition of war-of-all-against-all. We adopt coercive systems of regulation precisely to avoid having to live under such conditThe.0The book is divided into three parts: (1) a prima facie logical-empirical case for the Coercion Thesis, (2) a study of the "society of angels" and international law counterexamples, and why they do not refute the thesis, and (3) an analysis of how law guides behaviour and the implications of the Coercion Thesis on reasons for acGoingGoing against the current conventional wisdom in legal philosophy, Himma makes a systematic defence of the Coercion Thesis arguing that coercion or enforcement mechanisms are not only a necessary feature of legal systems, but a conceptually necessary feature of legal systems Coercion and the Nature of Law argues that it is a conceptually necessary condition for something to count as a system of law according to our conceptual practices that it authorizes the imposition of coercive sanctions for violations of some mandatory norms governing non-official behaviour (the Coercion Thesis). The book begins with an explication of the modest approach to conceptual analysis that is deployed throughout. The remainder of the book is concerned to show that an institutional normative system is not reasonably contrived to do anything that law must be able to do for us to make sense of why we adopt systems of law to regulate non-official behaviour, unless we assume that mandatory norms governing that behavior are backed by the threat of a sovereign 01. Title_Pages 02. Preface 03. The_Coercion_Thesis 04. Methodology_and_the_Nature_of_Law 05. A_Prima_Facie_Case_for_the_Coercion_Thesis_Sanctions_as_a_Paradigmatic_Feature_of_Municipal_Law 06. What_Law_Must_Be_Able_to_Do_The_Coercion_Thesis_and_the_Need_to_Keep_the_Peace 07. Three_Conceptual_Problems_of_Legal_Normativity_The_Logical_Space_of_Reasons 08. The_Coercion_Thesis_and_the_How_Problem_of_Legal_Normativity 09. The_Coercion_Thesis_and_the_Order_Problem_of_Legal_Normativity 10. The_Coercion_Thesis_and_the_Content_Problem_of_Legal_Normativity 11. Coercive_Sanctions_and_International_Law 12. Can_There_Be_Law_in_a_Society_of_Angels 13. Appendix_Can_There_Be_a_System_of_Municipal_Law_with_Only_Compensatory_Damages 14. Index This book makes a systematic defence of the Coercion Thesis in law, arguing that coercion or enforcement mechanisms are not only a necessary feature of legal systems, but a conceptually necessary feature of legal systems