Course:Law3020/2014WT1/Group E/System Of Rights

Law as a System of Rights

As a basis for his system of law as rights, Dworkin rejects the three following (positivist) propositions:

• Law is a set of rules identified as such (legal rules) with reference to a master rule (the “rule of recognition” eg) apart from content (master rule disconnected from content- the separation thesis)
• Where no legal rule applies, judges exercise discretion
• Legal rights and obligations are the product of legal rules, with no a priori or independent existence apart from those rules

Dworkin's assertion is that law contains principles in addition to rules, and that these principles subvert the positivist approach.