Primary and Secondary Rules
- Theory
- Primary and Secondary Rules
- Jurist
- H.L.A. Hart
- Description
In The Concept of Law (1961), Hart defines a mature legal system as the union of primary and secondary rules. Primary rules impose duties (what people must or must not do); secondary rules are rules about rules — the rule of recognition (identifying valid law), rules of change, and rules of adjudication. This union cures the uncertainty, stasis, and inefficiency of a regime of primary rules alone, and answers Austin's command theory.