The Legal Entrenchment of Illegality
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2008
Editor(s)
Matthew H. Kramer, Claire Grant, Ben Colburn & Antony Hatzistavrou
ISBN
9780199542895
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Language
en-US
Abstract
This chapter recounts a number of situations in the American South where legal officials persistently declined to impose penalties for certain crimes (committed against black people) even though the identities of the perpetrators of those crimes were generally known to the legal authorities. It adduces these harrowing facts of American history in order to question Hart's model of the ways in which the activities of legal officials sustain the existence of laws.
Recommended Citation
David B. Lyons,
The Legal Entrenchment of Illegality
,
in
The Legacy of H.L.A. Hart: Legal, Political, and Moral Philosophy
29
(Matthew H. Kramer, Claire Grant, Ben Colburn & Antony Hatzistavrou ed.,
2008).
Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199542895.003.0002
Comments
A draft of this chapter was presented at the July 2007 British Academy Symposium on "The Legacy of H.L.A. Hart: Legal, Political and Moral Philosophy."