Primary and Secondary Rules of H.L.A. Hart - Essay Example

Thirdly, they said that the laws are orders given by rulers that are followed by people forcefully. Hart was agreed on the first two points but he was not convinced with the third. He did not believe that a legal system is in total control of sovereign to command. According to him, it was because of the pressurizing of government that people do not obey laws. In the Concept of Law, Hart has argued that compliance of law is impossible when imposed forcefully on the public. Hart took a legal system as a union of primary and secondary rules and not as a compilation of individual laws.

He has defined primary rules as the rules which imply a force on a citizen on his deeds, that is, what he can and can not do. He said that secondary rules define specifics of the primary rules. A legal system, according to Hart is defined as those changes that are required in society to cure social problems. Hart said that primary rules work as a social force that puts a bound on the deeds of an individual. Even if there are no laws in a society there are certain rules that people follow to live as a part of society.

For example, nobody would walk naked on the streets, even if there is no such law against it. Being a social theorist, Hart never suggested that such rules are followed in order to avoid punishment; instead, they are followed because they set standards for individuals to survive in society. Hart also said that for the smooth functioning of law and order in a society, primary rules alone are not sufficient. It is because of several reasons; firstly people would have confusion about the law. There would no certainty that what the rules are, how they are applied, and what coarse of action should be followed if they are broken.

Second thing is that primary rules do not change accordingly to social, economic, and political changes. To overcome these difficulties Hart suggested a set of secondary rules. He defined secondary rules as the specification of primary rules. He said that secondary laws are required to establish an authoritative structure by which primary laws are defined and enacted.